00:00A new school year is underway and Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander says
00:0425 schools have requested police presence.
00:08The news comes less than a day after a video on social media
00:12showed students fighting after the first day of school resulting in the suspension of four students.
00:18Here's Dominic Ramroop.
00:20Speaking via telephone with TV6, Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander
00:25informed us that a number of additional schools have asked for a police presence.
00:30He says it shows the success of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service School-Oriented Policing Program.
00:35The minister told me yesterday that 25 additional schools are asking for police presence.
00:41So something is working well.
00:43When contacted for comment, President of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association, Crystal Ash,
00:49said the tutor had not been privy to any such requests
00:52and are not in a position to comment on the TTPS School-Oriented Policing Program.
00:57No, nothing has come to tutor directly in relation to if schools or principals would have been requesting
01:05to have the presence in their school of the police officers.
01:09Tutor has not received any such correspondence or information by way of any sort of mechanism whatsoever.
01:15Do you think this program has been a success, though, the police presence within the schools?
01:20Honestly, tutor is not in a position to make a comment on that because, again, we have no data,
01:26we have no empirical data, we have no information, nobody shares anything.
01:29All we have is what we read on the media, we listen on the media in relation to this particular
01:34program.
01:34We have asked that communication be sent with us so that we know the parameters of these officers
01:39on the compound as they interact with our members and the students.
01:42We have never received anything.
01:43President of the Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools of Trinidad and Tobago,
01:49Charlene Hicks-Rayburn, also says she is unaware of any such requests
01:53and informed TV6 that the association has recommended more police patrols for a long time now.
01:59One of the things we have asked for is a greater police presence on the before and after.
02:04She says some schools have been grateful for the help provided by the presence of the police officers,
02:09but what is of greater concern is the non-renewal of contracts for safety officers.
02:15I have been hearing more in terms of the concerns as regards to the non-renewal of contracts of safety
02:23officers.
02:24That is one of the main issues right now.
02:26The safety officers were doing it in terms of in the schools that they have been very effective
02:36with regards to assistance during the lunch period and so police officers, as I said,
02:41they had different degrees of success.
02:44Some persons would have expressed such different principles.
02:47We have, you know, things worked a little better for them,
02:50but there are some who didn't see the need or the what exactly,
02:54because we're still asking for their job specifications,
03:02their guidelines as to the, you know, what are exactly their rules and functions.
03:08That still has never been given.
03:10TV6 News made multiple attempts to get in contact with Minister of Education Dr. Michael Dowlath,
03:15but our calls went unanswered.
03:17Dominic Ramroop, TV6 News.
