Dear Editor,
Thank you for publishing my letter on Saturday which addressed a number of issues, including the punishment of four teachers in relation to the events leading up to and after the demise Queen’s College student Neesa Gopaul.
I now wish to highlight yet another set of issues which ought to be addressed by the Ministry of Human Services in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Child Protection Services. The ministries have so far failed miserably to address the 700-plus students of Queen’s College to acknowledge the tragedy of their colleague. One of the first things that ought to have been done following a tragedy of this sort is to acknowledge it, offer advice and words of encouragement, and allow the children to express their concerns in a group or one-on-one discussions with a counsellor or motivational speaker. This would certainly help reassure the students that the authorities were looking out for their emotional, physical, psychological and other needs.
The students ought to have been afforded the opportunity to express their emotions. They ought to have been given guidance and counselling, especially those who were close to Neesa Gopaul.
It is ridiculous that the ministry first sought to punish the teachers, yet they’ve left over 700 students in their care.
It’s clear to me that the authorities do not believe the teachers were delinquent in seeking help for Neesa Gopaul in a timely manner, otherwise they would have already sent in their officers to monitor the operations of the school on a daily basis until they were certain the need for such monitoring didn’t exist. If the ministry officials were satisfied or had convinced themselves that the teachers were responsible in any way, then they would not have left the students to the care of those who were allegedly delinquent.
During my years at Queen’s College as a student and teacher, the school had a counsellor who was summoned by the headmistress or deputy head to speak to students who revealed they had problems or were identified by teachers as possibly having a problem based on certain behavioural patterns they displayed. This is no longer the case. Whose responsibility is it to hire or assign a counsellor in a public school, and why doesn’t Queen’s College have one?
This is something the Ministry of Human Services or Ministry of Education needs to address, at all school levels.
Another matter is, how does the ministry expect the student population of Queen’s College to respond to the teachers who have been punished by the authorities, one such teacher being the deputy head? Have they stopped to even consider the students’ concerns following this development? These students look up to their teachers.
It would have probably been easy to let it slide if the students were nursery or even primary school children, but the reality is, they aren’t. They are young adults who are very much aware of what has happened and are of mature mind to form impressions or draw inferences from their teachers being punished. To whom do these children turn for reassurance?
Let’s turn our attention to the teachers. Have the officials issued a memo to all government and even private schools outlining what is expected of the educators when they are faced with cases similar to that of Neesa Gopaul?
I sincerely hope the officials consider these points and what’s at stake.
Yours faithfully,
Martina McDonald-Johnson
