Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has dou­bled down on her call for vi­o­lent and per­sis­tent­ly dis­rup­tive stu­dents to be re­moved from schools, chal­leng­ing those op­posed to her stance to take them in­to their own homes and deal with them.

In a so­cial me­dia post yes­ter­day evening, Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so ac­cused the T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA), Na­tion­al Par­ent Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion (NPTA) and the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) of fail­ing to do enough to pro­tect teach­ers and stu­dents from school vi­o­lence.

On Sun­day, ahead of the open­ing of the 2026/2027 aca­d­e­m­ic year, the Prime Min­is­ter urged teach­ers to send dis­rup­tive stu­dents home and leave par­ents to deal with them, sig­nalling a ze­ro-tol­er­ance ap­proach to dis­re­spect­ful and mis­be­hav­ing stu­dents, as well as un­co­op­er­a­tive par­ents and guardians.

Since then, her state­ment has been strong­ly crit­i­cised. Yes­ter­day, she an­swered her crit­ics and is­sued them a chal­lenge.

“I IN­VITE THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE AGAINST THE RE­MOVAL OF VI­O­LENT, DIS­RE­SPECT­FUL STU­DENTS FROM SCHOOLS TO VOL­UN­TEER TO TAKE THEM IN­TO YOUR OWN HOMES, WITH YOUR OWN FAM­I­LIES, AND DEAL WITH THEM,” she said.

Prime Min­is­ter said thou­sands of chil­dren go to school in fear of be­ing beat­en, robbed, ha­rassed or ter­rorised by oth­er stu­dents.

She said this af­fects their abil­i­ty to study and can cause “fear, de­spair and de­pres­sion”, ul­ti­mate­ly af­fect­ing their ed­u­ca­tion and fu­tures.

“This is not fair to well-be­haved stu­dents and their hard­work­ing par­ents, who make sac­ri­fices every day so their chil­dren can have a good ed­u­ca­tion and a bet­ter fu­ture,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She al­so ref­er­enced the death of 15-year-old Jay­den Lalchan, a St Stephen’s Col­lege stu­dent who died by sui­cide in Oc­to­ber 2024 fol­low­ing al­le­ga­tions of pro­longed bul­ly­ing.

“Nev­er for­get Jay­den Lalchan, who took his own life at 15 years old be­cause of con­stant bul­ly­ing and abuse from an­oth­er stu­dent at St Stephen’s Col­lege in Princes Town,” she said.

The Prime Min­is­ter then di­rect­ly tar­get­ed TTUTA, the NPTA and the PNM, ac­cus­ing all three of fail­ing to pro­vide so­lu­tions to the is­sue of school vi­o­lence.

“TTUTA, NPTA and the PNM have done noth­ing and will con­tin­ue to do noth­ing to keep our teach­ers and chil­dren safe from vi­o­lent stu­dents and par­ents in our schools,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so ac­cused the three groups of op­pos­ing the use of po­lice of­fi­cers to pro­tect teach­ers and stu­dents and of now re­sist­ing ef­forts to re­move vi­o­lent stu­dents from schools.

NPTA pres­i­dent Wal­ter Stew­art had said the as­so­ci­a­tion sup­port­ed the Prime Min­is­ter’s call for stu­dents to take ed­u­ca­tion se­ri­ous­ly, re­spect teach­ers and recog­nise the im­por­tance of ed­u­ca­tion.

How­ev­er, he said the pro­pos­al to send in­dis­ci­plined chil­dren home from school was con­cern­ing.

TTUTA pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe had raised sim­i­lar con­cerns, ques­tion­ing what stu­dents would ac­tu­al­ly do if sent home with­out ap­pro­pri­ate in­ter­ven­tions.

For­mer Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly had al­so crit­i­cised the Prime Min­is­ter’s po­si­tion.

In a so­cial me­dia post on Mon­day, Gads­by-Dol­ly ques­tioned whether send­ing mis­be­hav­ing chil­dren home would ac­tu­al­ly solve the prob­lem.

But Per­sad-Bisses­sar has re­ject­ed the sug­ges­tion that her Gov­ern­ment is ig­nor­ing the needs of trou­bled stu­dents.

She said her ad­min­is­tra­tion is “stand­ing up for our teach­ers’ and chil­dren’s safe­ty” and for the fu­ture of stu­dents who want to learn in a safe en­vi­ron­ment.

The Prime Min­is­ter main­tained that well-be­haved stu­dents and their par­ents should not be forced to suf­fer be­cause of the ac­tions of vi­o­lent or dis­rup­tive stu­dents.

“Good, hard­work­ing, law-abid­ing cit­i­zens and their dili­gent, dis­ci­plined chil­dren, who try to live pro­duc­tive lives, should not be made to suf­fer be­cause of the wicked, un­car­ing ac­tions of oth­ers,” she said.

Hard-line stance since tak­ing of­fice

Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s lat­est po­si­tion is con­sis­tent with the hard-line ap­proach she adopt­ed short­ly af­ter tak­ing of­fice in May 2025.

June 5, 2025: Per­sad-Bisses­sar said stu­dents who phys­i­cal­ly as­sault oth­ers should face ex­pul­sion and pos­si­ble crim­i­nal charges, fol­low­ing a se­ries of vi­o­lent school in­ci­dents.

Ear­ly Ju­ly 2025: She an­nounced plans to de­ploy po­lice of­fi­cers to high-risk schools, treat­ing school vi­o­lence as a se­cu­ri­ty as well as a dis­ci­pli­nary is­sue.

Sep­tem­ber 8, 2025: She de­fend­ed the de­ploy­ment of armed po­lice in schools, say­ing “enough is enough” and ar­gu­ing that of­fi­cers should be al­lowed to car­ry firearms when nec­es­sary.

No­vem­ber 2025: School vi­o­lence in To­ba­go again came un­der scruti­ny fol­low­ing in­ci­dents in­volv­ing stu­dents and calls for fur­ther ar­rests.

March 2026: Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les clashed in Par­lia­ment over the Gov­ern­ment’s use of armed po­lice in schools and its School-Ori­ent­ed Polic­ing Ini­tia­tive.

April 2026: Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Michael Dowlath re­port­ed that 1,050 stu­dents had been sus­pend­ed for school vi­o­lence be­tween Sep­tem­ber and De­cem­ber 2025, while no stu­dents had been ex­pelled dur­ing that pe­ri­od.