DePeiza: Time to fix this broken society

A broken society in need of repair from within.

In a similar vein to the sentiments expressed by Education Minister Santia Bradshaw, President of the Democratic Labour Party Verla DePeiza has said Friday’s stabbing death of a 16-year-old student requires a nationwide response to violence within schools.

Tremario Holder of Checker Hall, St. Lucy was fatally stabbed at the Frederick Smith Secondary School during an altercation with a fellow student, 15, who is currently in police custody.

Giving her condolences, DePeiza insisted it was time Barbados came together to address the issue of violence, especially within the youth.

“We have to work together and figure out how to fix this broken society and having figured out what needs to be done, we actually have to have the courage to do it, whatever that thing is,” she said in a news report.

On the topic of conflict resolution, she said while there were some suggestions that such should start at the primary school, it was necessary to go even further.

“I will be bold enough to say that it needs to start at the prenatal clinic and it needs to be everywhere. It cannot just be one place. We have to be consistent in our efforts to repair our society before we lose more. We lost a lot yesterday, not just two lives,” DePeiza highlighted.

While some have called for the instalment of metal detectors to reduce the number of weapons being brought into schools, she said these would only be “a temporary measure”.

“I think we need to deal with the reasons why people want to walk with weapons and then maybe there will be no need for metal detectors… Schools already have the power to search bags, but you cannot search 800 bags every day. I would rather deal with the causes. We have to get to the point where we are not just applying plaster,” she added.

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