And Still I Rise

The face of violence in schools-20 yr old Keba Charlery who was attacked by a student after she tried to discipline him.

General Secretary of the Saint Lucia Teacher's Union Wayne Cumberbatch says it is time to follow through on a provision by the Education Act that allows for students with behavioural issues leading to violence against themselves, other students and teachers to be housed in an institution designed to adequately respond to their special needs.

Cumberbatch was responding to last Friday's assault by a fourteen year old male student on his twenty year old female teacher which resulted in her sustaining injuries including a fractured nose.


The student has since been arrested and charged with assault. He says the Teacher's union is never pleased when these incidents occur and that they have worked with the Ministry of Education to ensure that there are counselors available to effectively deal with such troubled students.

Meanwhile, leader of the Organization for National Empowerment Sarah Flood-Beaubrun says such problems in the schools are directly linked to the decay of social and moral fiber in the country.

The SLTU says their monthly meeting with the Ministry of Education will examine some more suggestions and solutions to curbing future incidents of school violence.

Nothing left to say besides schools are fast becoming a war zone.Students turn up with their weapons(knives,icepicks etc) and a bottle or two make quite handy ones.There was an incident at my former school where a teacher spoke to a student about the use of a cell phone during classes only to have the gun toting boyfriend turn up to defend his girl.Very crazy times to be in a classrom.