PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – United States Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, Candace Bond, Friday launched a project intended to reduce the likelihood of students engaging in violence in a school setting or on the way to and from school.
The secondary goal is to increase students’ self-esteem and goal-setting ability, which should positively impact focus on academic performance,” Bond told the launch of the School Violence Intervention Project.
“This will be done by addressing psychosocial issues, such as family and personal trauma, self-esteem, and hopelessness. This project also provides values-based, goal-setting, and other life and social skills training, along with involvement in extracurricular activities.”
The US diplomat said, unlike the days when in 1973, the calypsonian, the Mighty Sparrow sang “School Days Are Happy Days,” events have shown that students currently “face increased cases of bullying, cyberbullying, violence, and in some instances criminal activity within schools” since they returned to the classrooms following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For many students, school days are no longer happy. For this reason, we have partnered with the Roots Foundation to launch this important and timely project to help address many of these challenges.”
She said the US Embassy here is also looking to work with other schools in the upcoming school year and that Washington is committed to engaging with young people and offering them opportunities worldwide.
“We provide a wide array of educational, entrepreneurship, and leadership training to young people through various scholarship programs, workshops, and exchanges. The US Embassy offers programs to move youth away from crime and violence towards productive and healthy adulthood,” she said.
“Let me assure you that the US Embassy is not involved in developing or influencing any other curriculum with the Ministry of Education. We are working with youth in at-risk communities and schools to help the kids develop into healthy, happy, and productive adults,” she said in an apparent reference to the controversy that has erupted here over storybooks dealing with sexual orientation among primary school-aged children.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, denied there were plans to include them in the school syllabus. Still, the assurance has done little to stave off an online petition by angry parents who called for a total ban of such material on the national booklist.
“I want to remind the population that as of September 2022, all principals were instructed that there are to be no changes to the school booklist,” the minister said regarding the books, which feature aspects of the LGBTQI+ community.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon said he is monitoring the recent trend for including LGBTQI+ content in the school curriculum, particularly from international agencies.
He recalled a questionnaire administered by an international organization quizzing children about their sexuality and gender identity in Barbados last October, saying it was “an extremely intrusive questionnaire about gender fluidity, masturbation, and other areas of sex education, resulting in significant backlash.
“The USA, the United Nations, and others are putting pressure on Caricom to introduce comprehensive sex education. This will teach your child that their biological sex is not given; that each one could choose to identify as they like,” the head of the Roman Catholic Church here said.
But Bond told the ceremony that Washington is committed to “the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion” and “as such, we seek to engage all communities across Trinidad and Tobago and ensure that every student has access to our programs and are impacted by the generosity of the American people.
“The United States is the Caribbean’s best and most trusted partner, and we will continue to work with our Trinbagonian partners to address the issues that matter to all of us. We do this because we are neighbors, friends, and family, and we are responsible for keeping each other safe,” she told the launching ceremony.
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