Investigation launched into parent’s involvement in Tobago school fight

(Trinidad Guardian) To­ba­go po­lice and Ed­u­ca­tion Di­vi­sion of­fi­cials have launched an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to a man’s in­volve­ment in a school fight that took place in Rox­bor­ough, To­ba­go.

A 1:26 min­utes video, show­ing the fight, has been wide­ly shared on all so­cial me­dia plat­forms.

 
The ro­bust man, who one of the as­sailants refers to a dad, is seen slap­ping and point­ing his fin­ger in the faces of stu­dents – sev­er­al fe­males and a male. At one point he seems to hit one fe­male stu­dent on the ground.

Passers­by got in­volved, part­ing the fight and pulling the man away from the stu­dents.

ACP Ver­non Roberts of the TTPS To­ba­go Di­vi­sion said the po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the mat­ter.

“We saw the video and have be­gun an in­ves­ti­ga­tion. We will take the nec­es­sary ac­tion when the in­ves­ti­ga­tion is over,” Roberts told Guardian Me­dia.

 
Chief Sec­re­tary and Ed­u­ca­tion for Sec­re­tary Kelvin Charles said Ed­u­ca­tion Di­vi­sion of­fi­cials con­demned the fight. He said it was un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

“(We) con­demn our stu­dents’ in­volve­ment in any pub­lic brawl of this na­ture, es­pe­cial­ly as it has the un­in­tend­ed con­se­quence of bring­ing the school in­to dis­re­pute,” he told Guardian Me­dia via What­sApp mes­sage.

He added: “An in­ves­ti­ga­tion has been launched to as­cer­tain the facts so that an in­formed de­ci­sion can be made” and de­scribed par­ent’s in­volve­ment as “quite un­for­tu­nate.”

He said the di­vi­sion en­cour­ages “peace­ful res­o­lu­tion of con­flicts among our stu­dents, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the face of provo­ca­tion.”

Fee­les, Pres­i­dent of the Sin­gle Fa­ther’s As­so­ci­a­tion, weighed in the sit­u­a­tion. He said the man should have de­fused the fight.

“What I would have ex­pect­ed him to do, see­ing the sce­nario would have al­ready es­ca­lat­ed, I would have ex­pect­ed any par­ent to deesca­late the sce­nario,” Fee­les told Guardian Me­dia.

Less than 24 hours af­ter the video was post­ed, users on the so­cial me­dia plat­form Face­book have al­ready formed their opin­ions about the in­di­vid­u­als in the brawl.

Al­most 1,000 per­sons com­ment­ed on the mat­ter.

Aim­ing at the man, one user wrote, “the fa­ther needs to be charged.”

An­oth­er user com­ment­ed: “As a fa­ther, he should have dealt with it an­oth­er way”

How­ev­er, oth­er Face­book users said the chil­dren were wrong.

“Each and every one of those chil­dren de­serves a hard lash,” one user said.

 
Coun­selling Psy­chol­o­gist Gre­go­ry Is­sacs de­scribed what every adult should do in sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tions –

Dis­play emo­tion­al in­tel­li­gence and self-aware­ness.

Prac­tice self-reg­u­la­tion.

Con­trol anger.

Do not act im­pul­sive­ly.

Pro­tect the chil­dren with­out bring­ing harm to any­one else.

Con­sid­er oth­er ways to defuse the sit­u­a­tion.

Eval­u­ate the po­si­tion and make a “good” de­ci­sion.
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