I think Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police for Community Relations Enez Joseph’s suggestion of police youth clubs in primary and secondary schools and other support frameworks is well worth considering.
Children learn what they see, they are not born “monsters.” When these children act out in school, the behaviour is well entrenched. They had to learn it, deal with it somewhere.
As children, we have to accept how the adults around us treat us. When we are old enough, we assimilate and assess. Who knows what these children have to deal with on a daily basis?
If ag ACoP Joseph’s suggestion is given serious consideration, a police youth club should be equipped with qualified personnel/counsellors to pick up on children with behavioural/family problems. They should be given whatever help they require to deal with these issues. Some children just want to survive the day, they are not in a position to learn anything and for all we know, they have to go to a “home” where more challenges await them.
This is not only a family problem, it is one for the society and all our leaders to come together to solve. It takes a village to raise a child, it is said, and this is even more relevant now than it ever was. We need to wake up to the crisis that our youth are living in and not label and demean them.
Annie Downie
Concerned Mother
Couva