…Bynoe urges tougher legislation
Two Berbice teachers appeared on Thursday before the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) third Biennial Conference and Minister of Education to relate tales of being physically assaulted by parents in the classrooms at their respective schools.
Both teachers were pregnant at the time of the incidents. One of the teachers suffered a miscarriage a few days later. One of the teachers, 28-year- old Carmalita Hackim of Skeldon Primary School, said that she was assaulted by a child’s aunt in January.
The teacher, who said that she was hit on her back by the woman, suffered a miscarriage a few days later.
She stated that on January 19, around 12:45 hrs, she was supervising a class in Grade 2A and “was confronted by this girl (name given), and she asked me if there was a problem– that I hit her nephew (name of child given). I told her I did not, that I only tapped the child on his shoulder for him to tell the other child ‘sorry’ and she turned to me and asked me for a demonstration of how I dealt with her nephew”.
The teacher said that she then tapped the woman on her shoulder to show her how she dealt with her nephew and “then she turned and dealt me three blows in the arm, severely…Then she asked how I would feel if she would have hit me like that so I told her I did not hit the child as she had just hit me”.
The woman then said that she was going to visit the Department of Education in New Amsterdam. As the teacher was turning to go back to her class, she was once more allegedly dealt another two blows to the back, “and I was near two months’ pregnant– seven weeks, three days pregnant.
“At that time I gave a complaint to the Divisional Head of the School since the head teacher was at a meeting at another school in Crabwood Creek”.
The head teacher was subsequently informed and reported the matter to the Education officials in the region. The police were also informed about the matter and promised to “do their investigations”.
The educator noted that no charges were laid against the boy’s aunt and nothing has been done to give her justice for the child she lost through the miscarriage. She is certain the blows she received to the back resulted in her losing her baby.
The teacher asked, “But what about my unborn child that I lost? I am a mother… I am suffering right now in more than one way; I lost my child on my husband’s birthday…what better gift can I give him?”
The teacher, who has been teaching for 12 years, maintained that she did not originally hit the child but rather reprimanded him “and leaned over the desk and tried to talk to him because he was laughing at a new child who had come in the class that day.
“I just leaned over and tapped him on the shoulder and told him to tell the girl ‘sorry’. “He was laughing at the new girl– she couldn’t write properly so she started to cry when he was laughing at her. But the aunt claimed that I beat this boy bad, bad, bad”.
Another female teacher, this one three months’ pregnant from Number 36 Primary School told the Minister that on the last day of school (March 30), she sent home two male students who were fighting. Within five minutes, the mother of one of the boys walked in the school and started to argue.
The woman started to assault her and attempted to take it a step higher. She picked up a stool to hit the teacher but was prevented from doing so by other teachers. A report was made to the police after which a medical certificate was requested of the teacher.
The matter is now before the courts as the teacher is pressing for charges to be laid against the individual.
Manickchand, after listening to the two teachers, expressed her disgust over the matters and urged that speedy action be taken to bring the perpetrators to justice. They must ‘face the full force of the law”.
GTU President, Colin Bynoe at the Opening session of the Biennial Conference, had mentioned the growing violence in schools. It [the violence] “has moved from the ordinary use of slingshots, to the use of knives, cutlasses and even bottles”.
He said that in the past when the issue was mentioned, “it was something that mostly the male students were involved in…[but] today, more female students…are involved”.
He noted that students are “so emboldened these days that they actually tell teachers “I am going to beat you”. Bynoe noted that it is important that teachers be on their guard. “The number of assaults and wounding occurring in schools is well known…Several teachers were wounded and assaulted”.
He did mention Ms. Hackim’s assault. “This matter is now before the court of law, after pressures from the Union’s officials and Department of Education”.
He also expressed disgust at the sum of bail –$8,000–that was ordered against a parent who slapped a Rose Hall Town Primary school teacher in the head teacher’s office in March. Bynoe is urging for stronger legislative action against persons who feel that the nation’s teachers must be physically “abused at [the parents’s] whims and fancies”.
Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/04/14/assaulted-teachers-appear-before-manickchand-at-gtu-conference/