By Emmanuel Joseph
The Democratic Labour Party’s youth leader on Thursday upped the ante in the political debate stemming from the controversial lockdown drill at the Springer Memorial School by calling on parents to sue the Mia Mottley administration over the incident that left several students traumatised.
The appeal was made by Tyra Trotman, the newly-elected chairperson of the DLP’s youth arm, the Young Democrats, during a party-sanctioned news conference at the DLP’s George Street, St Michael headquarters, held at the same time the Ministry of Education was hosting a press conference where officials apologised for what had occurred at the school and sought to assure that in the future, all relevant protocols would be followed.
“I would like to implore those parents out there, please take legal action. The time is now. Take legal action. Stand up for the rights of your children. Protect your children at all costs necessary,” she said as she also called on Minister of Education Kay McConney and Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw to resign.
Trotman, an attorney-at-law, said the masked men wielding cutlasses and mock guns was enough to be considered a criminal act of assault on innocent children at a school.
“Not only was it a criminal action, but there is a civil side to it as well. Anywhere where a duty of care has been established and there has been a breach of that duty of care, and as a result of that breach there has been injury, whether it be physical or mental, you have a right, you have a case, you have a cause of action.
“So, without saying too much, that would be the role that parents should take. The first step would be to seek counselling so you can rely on medical evidence and thereafter, retain an attorney-at-law to represent your interest.”
Trotman also insisited that children and guardians should have been informed that the exercise would take place and allowed to give their consent.
“It is very hard for the mind to decipher between a simulation and a real-life event if you are not put on notice first. Section 58 of the Education Act, Cap 41 of the laws of Barbados, states that the minister shall, in the exercise of his or her functions under this Act, have regard to the general principle that so far as is compatible with the provision of efficient instruction and training and the avoidance of unreasonable public expenditure, the wishes of parents are to be considered in the education of pupils.
“That is in the Act, so why is it then that parents were not consulted to find out whether or not it was not their wish to have their children take part in such an exercise or a simulation as it was called?” she queried.
The DLP is also recommending a template for all schools for the future conduct of safety and security simulations, said member of the party’s Executive Council, Irene Sandiford-Garner who insisted that an apology from the authorities was “not enough”.
She told reporters that such a template would help to avoid the trauma and chaos experienced during the simulation on Wednesday morning.
Flanked by other party officials, the DLP’s third vice-president and child advocate Felicia Dujon and chair of the Women’s League Melissa Savoury-Gittens, Sandiford-Garner said a blueprint for schools would ensure the safety of the children.
“You have to be able to have a template for these types of exercises,” she said. “All schools should have a particular template so that you control the environment. That is common sense – basic principles that all schools follow, so that there are no deviations from the template or the blueprint of these exercises. In that way, you assure us of the safety of our children.”
Sandiford-Garner argued that while the Ministry of Education may have sought to “throw the principal under the bus”, the Education Act shows that all roads lead to the minister, who is therefore ultimately in charge of the safety of the nation’s school children.
“Furthermore, to admit that you are not responsible is even more egregious because you have to be able to have a template for these types of exercises. So, if you are going to say that you knew nothing and that the schools are responsible, and every school has its own methodology for these types of exercises, again, you shouldn’t be there. Why are you there? You need to go,” she insisted.
Dujon sought to introduce the findings of research to counter suggestions by some people here that schools need to teach children how to respond to various types of simulations.
“The reality is that many scientific and medical journals are now telling us that after those drills – those that you have been seeing in the US – there has been an increase in anxiety, stress and depression, from 39 per cent to 42 per cent in children,” said Dujon.
She did not identify the sources of the research.
“So, we know what that means. We are spacing the increase in mental health conditions of children when we inflict those traumatic experiences on them,” she told journalists. “The reality is that, also, we have to think in terms of the various types of injuries that have occurred during those simulations….”
As part of the simulation done in conjunction with the Barbados Police Service and the Barbados Defence Force, masked men with fake guns and machetes stormed the Government Hill, St Michael school. The men reportedly went around from classroom to classroom, purportedly in search of someone.
Although the school administration and teachers were aware of the drill, the event triggered panic among several students as they were not informed about what was happening.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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