With the New School Year started on September 4, the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) has urged parents to consider a number of things to keep their children in a safe and healthy environment.
Officer attached to the Community Relations Department (CRD) of the Royal Grenada Police Force, Kaudina Mclean had a sit down with staffer at the Government Information Service (GIS) Abigail McIntyre to look at the New School Year.
The female police officer reiterated some of the laws as extracted from the Educational Act concerning the safety of kids as they return to school, as well as respect for authority, and the responsibility of both parent and student.
“According to the Act, every student enrolled in a public educational institution or assisted private school educational institution must observe any code of conduct for students and other rules and policies for students specified by the Ministry,” she said.
Mclean went on to point out the importance of attending classes and obeying authority.
“They must observe any standards that are set by the Principal of the institution with regards to cleanliness and tidiness of the person, the general deportment, their attire, their courtesy and respect for the rights of other persons.” she said.
Mclean urges parents to put rules in place to work along with the authority to make sure children stay out of trouble with the law.
“Students are expected to be accountable to persons in authority within the school hours and of course for activities even if it is outside of the school hours but the school is responsible for you. You are expected to be accountable and in all of that we expect parents to encourage children to be accountable to those in authority.
According to Mclean, the RGPF in its weekly engagement with some of the schools has observed that the children who are constantly disruptive are the ones whose parents are not involved in their schooling process.
Her message to parents is to be responsible and take a keen interest in their child’s education.
“The children who are in need for this sort of intervention, the parents are hardest to reach or sometimes you reach out to them and they show no interest whatsoever,” she remarked.
Some of the common offenses raised by the RGPF about children are loitering, partaking in sexual activities, and vaping (which she noted is a rising major health risk).
Mclean encouraged students to not loiter and appealed to parents to help in this aspect by being firm with curfew times.
“By keeping students from loitering, it lessens the risk of them partaking in illegal activities,” she said.