Two bullies have been expelled from a local secondary school, the Ministry of Education has confirmed.
Their actions which were recorded in a viral video was the subject of a ministry probe which concluded this week.
The boy in the video, as well as another encouraging him, were both expelled. The ministry says it will continue to investigate to see whether other students are to be held accountable.
“When the ministry speaks of zero tolerance on acts of bullying, the ministry is very serious about that,” said Director of Education Clare Browne.
He added that “We will not allow students to come in, wreak havoc and create fear in any school community.”
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“The upholder is worse than the…”
Swift justice for the victim and his family. Hope the bully gets rehabilitated.
Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock! This is the International Decade for People of African Descent 2015 -2024! Expulsion! Is that Legal, Natural or Reparatory Justice!
This is directed to the Ministers, of Education, Science and Technology, Legal Affairs, Public Safety and Labour, Health, Wellness & The Environment, Sports, Culture, National Festivals & the Arts, Social Transformation & Human Resource Development and Foreign Affairs, International Trade & Immigration!
Every child has the right to feel safe at home, at school and in the community (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1990)!
Bullying is a subset of aggression (Ma, Stewin & Mah, 2001). Aggressive actions such as roughhousing or fighting may be part of a bullying interaction, but they constitute bullying only when they take place within a relationship where the children involved perceive that there is a power differential. Roughhousing and fighting among school children who have a relationship but where there is the same perceived strength (physical or psychological) is not considered bullying (Craig, Peters & Konarski, 1998; Olweus, 1993). Bullying actions are targeted at the victim in a purposive manner and are intended to reduce the perceived power the victim has over the situation or to intentionally harm the victim (Olweus, 1993). The same behaviours when they are committed as random or reactive responses to situations are not recognized as bullying behaviours (see Atlas & Pepler, 1998; Pellegrini & Long, 2002; Pepler & Craig, 2000; Sudermann, Jaffe & Schieck, 1996).
Successful implementation of a school policy requires the leadership of the principal and the support of teachers, students, and parents. Development of a policy typically follows four steps as described below (Pellegini, 2002;Smith, 2000): Conducting a school needs assessment; Developing a policy in consultation with key stakeholders; Implementing the policy in the school; and Evaluating the policy! What was our process and Stakeholder engagement in Policy and Process formation!
The public tends to get information on social issues from media sources rather than academic journals or research documents. The news media, both television and print, have drawn public attention to incidents of bullying. However, the coverage can sensationalize an issue, with unintended consequences. “VIDEO PROMPTS CALL FOR BULLYING TO BE TAKEN MORE SERIOUSLY” … “STUDENTS SUSPENDED, MINISTRY PROMISES TO INVESTIGATE DISTURBING ABUSE VIDEO” … “VIRAL VIDEO SHOWS STUDENT BRING STRANGLED, CLARE BROWNE PROMISES THOROUGH PROBE.” Is School Violence and Bullying in particular escalating! Have Studies been Implemented!
EXPULSION! To what end! This is a fundamental educational moment! The world is changing and so is Antigua and Barbuda, and for the better. What can each one of us do to help Antigua and Barbuda’s School System fulfill its potential as a place of ‘enlightenment’ and ‘justice’! As Champions of Afro-Caribbean Liberty we must admit that contradictions exist, but the process of educational dialogue is to debate them and try to move forward.
“No phenomena can be apprehended adequately without locating it first. A phenom must be studied and analyzed in relationship to psychological time and space. It must always be located. This is the only way to investigate the complex interrelationships of science and art, design and execution, creation and maintenance, generation and tradition, and other areas bypassed by theory.” – Asante!
Mr. Director of Education, may I have one moment please? You need to also look at some teachers in the secondary schools. I won’t name the one that I am referring to but it’s an all girls school😯. Some a dem female teachers talk to children in a bullying manner as well. They let the girls know that their pay check is sure so I guess it’s ok for them to speak down to them and not get expelled. I pray that one of these days some of these teachers conduct in the classroom are recorded. The boys should not have done what they did so whatever consequence they face they probably deserve it.
I agree with you 100% these teachers NEED to be trained my son attends the Antigua Grammar School and some of his teachers are the biggest bullies around. You have teachers telling student only a select few get to ask questions, they talk down to the students and when you meet with the one of the heads you get absolutely no satisfaction because ”you know how children can be”, they uphold the bullying behavior because they don’t want to take any action. Who expels them from the system and hold them accountable.
Any teacher who is a bully should be kicked to the curb and fired. Zero tolerance means ZERO. Some of them were so badly beaten when still at home, and though they be teachers now, they have no idea how to work with students. Enough is enough. No more nonsense. This is the New Antigua.
True !!!!!!!
Where will the state educate the expelled?
The state has a responsibility to educate it’s minors. This responsibility is unconditional.
When adults has no vision except tunnel vision our misunderstood, experimenting youth ends up in a permanent ditch.
The expelled is the voter and builder of tomorrow.
Their parents can now pay to have them schooled. Should have thought about that before they decided to bully the young man and who knows how long it’s been going on. What would your response be if that young man who was bullied decided to commit suicide or something of that manner?
The question/statement ‘Melchisedec’ made is a very important, the young man who was bullied did not commit suicide so his response to that is not required. I think he should definitely be given counselling they both should. So lets step back with 20/20 vision and figure out what’s next for these expelled students, if they are left to themselves they will become worse.
PS: not all parents can afford private schooling.
I agree with you on this 100%,that’s my concern,what are they do to when they are expelled from a public School? I am in no way saying what they did was right,but couldn’t there be another form of punishment besides expulsion? I think the decision was a rash one made without any considerations of the possible long term consequences.
So true
While I agree these boys should be punished for bullying the young man, I do not agree with expelling them from school. Y’all just creating 3 more statistics. These BOYS need help and IN MY OPINION the director of education was swayed by PUBLIC OPINION and made a bad decision.
100%
I agree
” IN MY OPINION the director of education was swayed by PUBLIC OPINION and made a bad decision”…. I wonder what your comment would be had these boys continued to bully other students and something went wrong and resulted in injury or death?. Would you then be coming on here to kakkadoodledoo about the director of education not doing something to prevent that?. I’m not sure if you remember a craze that went viral some years ago called “happy slapping”?..a few deaths and serious injuries accured when the victims fell to the ground and hit their heads. I agree with you that every child is entitled to an education and should not be denied one. So here is one possible solution. Students who engage in serious acts like this including fighting should have a court order to attend a 15 week stay in a purpose built environment where they would live and be given extra educational input and guidance under a strict and structured programme. Extend or repeat the attendance for stubborn students as they will eventually conform.
I can tell y’all passing y’all judgement by what was seen on the video. Before u come at me with your book length rambling did the minstiry do a proper investigation into the matter?? If the video did not go viral would it be diffrent outcome?? The BOYS are dead wrong for their actions and they should be punished but throwing them out of school is the answer?? Is that going to stop bullying?? The director made his choice because of PUBLIC OPINION thus creating 3 more satatics and this not going to stop bullying.
P.S. IT IS MY OPINION IF U DONT LIKE IT TAJE IT TO THE LORD IN PRAYER.
What the “boys” did was tantamount to attempted murder. Electrical chord around your child’s neck and being egged on to continue? Would you want your child to be in such an environment where their very LIFE IS BEING THREATENED?
Now the parents will have to figure out what to do next. Apply to private school, home-school them or whatever they think is best.
The bullies needing help and the fact that they were expelled are two different things. It’s up to the parents to actually PARENT their children. They need to do some serious soul-searching and find out where their children learned such barbaric behaviour from.
This was not a “playground fight” This young man could have either end up sick or dead from that electrical chord.
No private school wants would-be terrorists.
You could not have said it any better SMDH. These boys need help. Especially the one that committed the act. Expulsion won’t help. I’m truly sorry it turned out this way
The expelled also have parents who have a responsibility to raise their young human beings into adulthood with certain principles. Teachers are to capitalize on that…..NOT RAISE OUR CHILDREN. Let us not relinquish our responsibilities as parents.
Exactly!!!!
So y’all think a student bullying a student is bad🤔a teacher emotionally bullying a student is worst throwing words at them such as “aru nah learn and a one set a dunce pickney aru be with no common sense” is that right for a teacher to tell a student y’all need to look into the bullshit teachers and pencils do nah even get me started on how the rest workers such as cleaners and security talk to the students …….. Just imagine I witnessed a little boy walking into the bathroom and the cleaner shouting at him “oh man just clean in dey ma tired a aru go piss a bush” like really tf she getting paid for sit on her ass and watchvthe pickney them and chat them cause that is all they do🙄🙄🙄 y’all need to watch the retards y’all hiring to be teachers and tap always a jump ding pick ney throat 🤦🏿🤦🏿tired of it
#im a STUDENT at the JENNINGS SECONDARY SCHOOL
That woman needs to get off her ass and get to work, earning her salary.
They deserved what they got hands down. Now pay to send them school and let them know value of education.
Yup. We live and we learn.
This is an extremely poor decision and is triggered purely by public sentiments. It is the governments responsibility to provide schooling and education for children and whilst I am not condoning poor and unacceptable behavior in school, there are other ways of dealing with this and similar matters other than expelling the children from school. We are driving these kids out on the street to become criminals. Our knee jerk reaction to dealing with these “problem Kids” leaves much to be desired and shows just how incompetent and unprepared the Ministry of Education is. I certainly hope that sensibility will prevail and the children will be reinstated into the school body soonest.
You can take them under your wings and instate them into your life.
A strong and clear message needed to be sent and it was sent. This should help to serve as a deterrent to bullies and those who seek to inflict harm on others.
Amennnnnn……a great call ….now other children should learn from this…
BULLYING WONT BE TOLERATED IN SCHOOLS
I am no expert but the idea of parents rasing children is absurd, it has not worked and it will never work.
Children do not learn from what is said to them. Children mimick the behavior of adults, and add their creativity (positive/negative) to it.
The concept it takes a village has been so misunderstood and even Hilary Clinton who made it popular missed the concept.
Simply it is the responsibility of the community to raise children not parents, the child should not even realize who his or her biological parents are.
The parents should conduct themselves in the manner they would like their children to copy.
Parenting is not what you say but what you do.
Legally the government cannot expell any child within the legal definition of child from any public school.
Challenge in court the government would have to reverse the order.
It is the government’s responsibility to educate children not the private sector.
This practice is illegal and must come to an end.
Solutions are needed not archaic knee jerk reactions. Expulsion is also bullying.
Fixing bullying with another act of bullying is a cowardly act.
If they must be punished then do that. Cancelling their education is not proactive.
That is exactly my point. Discipline them. Let them help in the cleaning and maintaining of the school compound for a month. With the parents and police assistance, confine them to their homes after 5pm. Ban them from participating in carnival activities. Let them be subjected to two mounts of counseling and include the parents as well. This is double punishment for them and for the parents as they are now forced to seek alternative schooling. Such means of punishing kids is both wrong and illegal.
Let them clean the toilets and latrines for a month.
I agree with you 100%. Everyone is willing to write these boys off but they seem to forget that they are boys under the age of 18. No one is saying they are right, they are wrong on all side but how in the world does the director of eduction justify expelling children from school!! As earlier pointed out it is wrong and illegal and I hope the parents takes it to the court.
I applauded this decision……NO CHILD SHOULD HA E TO E DURED A CORD PLACED AROUND HIS/HER NECK AT ANY SCHOOL OR IN ANY SCHOOL…
TEACH HIM A LESSON WHILE SENDING A MESSAGE OF ZERO TOLERANCE FOR BULLIES & BULLYING….
CAN YOU IMAGINE THIS CHILD BEING LAUGH AT BY HIS PEERS..
THE TRAMATIC EXPERIENCE ……
I WONDER IF THAT CHILD PARENTS APOLOGIZED FOR THEIR SONS STUPIDITY….
WHEN PARENTS FAIL AT PARENTING
PREFER TO BE THEIR CHILDREN FREN THAN PARENTS
I wish our society was civilized…….
Where the rule of law was not based on emotions but sound reasoning and principle.
We must see into the future and recognize prevention is better than cure.
What is happening in the society to cause children to act like that?
Exactly. After investigating, the decision was made on principles NOT on feelings. Feelings change, principles don’t.
The decision stands. When your child or relative has the experience of a wire choking their neck, then lets see you walk the talk.
@Real talk If only we lived in a civilized society.
Archaic, barbaric slave master mentality.
Eye for an eye leaves plenty blind unproductive people in the society.
When the state takes revenge it is called Justice. Revenge does not prevent or fix lawlessness.
If the state revenge system called Justice worked, why is there need for a jail?
A civilized society would live in harmony with it’s environment. It would obey all the laws of nature.
Everything in life is seasonal. A period for new born- infant- child- adolescent- adult- middle age- old age. Please stop talking and observe each stages of life has different challenges, it is a season it will pass proper planning can prevent certain occurrences.
Compassion and forgiveness vs revenge and selfishness
No one is “cancelling” their education. They did that themselves when they chose to engage in that WICKED & SENSELESS act against their peer. Now the people who engaged in the sex act that resulted in the birth of the bullies will need to find another school willing to accept them.
Nip that shit in the bud. We don’t want to copy America where school shootings are a dime a dozen. The “Golden Rule” is still valid in our crazy world.
I hope the bullies and their parents truly get the therapy needed. Thank God the victim survived. His life could have been cut short from that electric wire.
Some Parents create a mess of their children at home and then let them loose to wreak havoc on society. These are the same parents whose child can do no wrong and will rush to school to “fix” the teacher/principal for correcting their child, but you can’t get them to attend a PTA meeting.
Wonder if the bully saw his parent using a wire to choke the other parent.
Probably. They learned it somewhere, likely at home. Shame.
I went to school in Antigua many moons ago.In my time many of us had fights.Some were done inside of the class rooms and around the school grounds.Back then there was not that thing we now called social media.Perhaps if there was such a thing then.Many of us would not be around for graduation day.I am not going to condone what transpired.Because I did not see the video.However,was expulsion the very last resort?If so,then what?Are those two young men thrown out to the wolves.What are the ages of those young men?I listened to Clare Browne and his pronouncements in regards to the expulsion.Could someone tell me if Clare Browne was a signatory to the EBooks Contract.If he was one.How come he was not expelled and or suspended.Just asking.
You need to watch the video BEFORE you comment and rattle off your cock n bull. That child could’ve left the school in a hearse or ambulance. That type of behaviour is what you see depicted on tv shows about prison life. Wonder if it was your child, if you would still be chatting shit mixed with politics.
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