A STERN WARNING has been sent to children as young as 11 years that if caught wandering they can be placed before the Juvenile Courts and punished.
It came yesterday from Magistrate Barbara Cooke-Alleyne, who spoke to the media during a National Task Force on Crime Prevention’s fourth annual 11-Plus programme at the Church of Christ, Marchfield, St Philip.
Cooke-Alleyne pointed out that through the Probation Department parents/guardians had the right to press charges against their wards if they caught them wandering.
Explaining that wandering was when a child proceeded to go “someplace you are not supposed to be without consent of a parent or an adult”, the magistrate said she was concerned not only because there was a high percentage of girls wandering, but also about some of the reasons.
And, noting that imprisonment was the last resort in Juvenile Court, Cooke-Alleyne called for an alternative facility to meet the needs of some wanderers, other than the traditional Government Industrial School (boys) or Summervale (girls).
“[There are] many girls wandering because they are promiscuous or something is happening that they are trying to escape from,” the magistrate noted.
“But there should be some facility to help children like this who need that help so that there can be some counselling on the parents’ side as well as the children.
“We need that separate place for them [not to] feel as though they are being punished because daddy abused them or mummy abused them.”
She urged parents whose child had a habit of wandering or who wanted to prevent the practice, to contact Parent Education for Development in?Barbados (PAREDOS) or the Probation Department for assistance.
See also ‘Chaos’ to remove corporal punishment.