STUDENTS should not be able to return to the South East Port-of-Spain Secondary School because of crime in the area.
This is the view of Independent Senator Hazel Thompson-Ahye at a Joint Select Committee on Human Rights, Equality and Diversity – Equal Access to Education, virtual meeting on Friday.
She asked, “Do you think any child in Trinidad and Tobago deserves to be placed in that hotspot crime ridden area where bullets could be flying at any time and where the environment is dirty?”
The Ministry of Education’s decision to return students of the school near Nelson Street, a known-crime hotspot, was met with criticism by Thompson-Ahye.
She said schools should not continue to exist in known crime hotspot and attributed this as a reason for the underachievement of these students.
It is indicative of how the school environment in Port-of-Spain impacts the students who attend these schools, Thompson-Ahye said.
In 2019, a stray bullet from a shooting at upper Nelson Street entered a classroom of the South East Port-of-Spain school.
While no one was hurt, the incident then prompted an inquiry into the relocation of the school.
Students were then temporarily relocated to the former John Donaldson Technical Institute.
Acting Chief Education Officer Lisa Henry-David said, “The area was not always a crime hotspot, but was once considered a heritage location, but changes in the socio-economic has since made the community unsafe.”
Second Vice President of the Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools David Simon said not only were there high levels of crime and violence, but there were also other issues such as infrastructure and “management models” to be taken into consideration in these schools in the Port-of-Spain area.
