Students involved in beating need counselling

ALL those involved in last Wednesday’s incident which led to three students appearing before the court yesterday after being charged in connection with beating their schoolmate who is now nursing serious injuries, need to be counselled.

Head of the Barbados National Council of Parent Teacher Associations, Shone Gibbs, told The Barbados Advocate, that the future of the students, two girls and a boy, who appeared before Magistrate Ian Weekes, in the District ‘D’ Magistrates Court, around noon, should be carefully considered, along with the student who was seen being attacked in a video which has now gone viral.

While two students pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, a 16-year-old female, was remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison at Dodds.

The 14-year-old male, who admitted to the offence, was remanded to the Government Industrial School. Those two students will appear in court on Monday for sentencing.

The other student charged, who is a 15-year-old female was granted bail after she pleaded not guilty.

Noting that community service for the students charged should be considered, Gibbs is also of the opinion that parents should be required by the Court to take parenting course and to work on their relationship with their children. He said he believes that it should also be ordered that social workers visit the students’ homes, as part of the follow through effort.

“All behaviour is communication. What’s the message our children are sending. The children and their families need counselling. They must understand there are consequences in life. Too many parents don’t know how to deal with their children but aren’t availing themselves for training,” Gibbs said.

“This is a very unfortunate episode. Every effort must be made to arrest this trend and realign our children with their purpose. How adults deal with and resolve conflict, also informs how children choose to react and respond to conflicts,” he added.
(AH)