A video of a group of students attacking a male student went viral on Wednesday.
While the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service is involved in addressing violence in schools through its School-Oriented Policing Programme, this particular incident took place outside of the school’s compound.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Junior Benjamin said his officers visited the school, and they are investigating the incident.
He called for a wider scope to help address the issue of school violence.
“I think we need to have our parents, educators and also religious leaders and community leaders also join part and parcel of the process to ensure that we really seek to train our children and to help bring that psychosocial change within, because the heart of the problem, I think, is a problem of the heart.”
DCP Benjamin noted that the young man who was the victim of the attack was treated and discharged from hospital.
He added that the perpetrators of the attack have been identified.
“To date, I can say, we probably have about three or four persons that we are looking at. We visited the school, again, seeking to, you know, really understand what has happened and what are the measures that are being put in place. I am quite aware that under the Ministry of Education there is the National Code of Conduct that was given out by the Minister recently.”
As DCP in charge of the policing programme, DCP Benjamin said he and his officers are continuing to engage with the parents of the students involved in the incident as well as working to have a meeting with the victim and his parents.