by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ
Every child brings us God’s smile and invites us to recognise that life is His gift, a gift to be welcomed with love and preserved with care always and at every moment. (Pope Benedict XVI)
These words came to mind as I read about the pain that 6-year-old Josiah Governor must have gone through at the hands of his 25 year-old stepfather, now before the Court charged with his murder. On January 25, he reportedly told police that he used a piece of PVC pipe to beat Josiah because he was not paying attention during a maths lesson. It is also alleged that Josiah was thrown through a window after being beaten.
In CCSJ’s recent media release we reported on a case in which another man is alleged to have thrown a 10-month-old baby through a window because the child was crying. He also beat the baby’s 3-year-old sister with a baton and beat their mother.
It is an indictment on our T&T society that we continue to fail to protect our innocent, defenseless children. The Express Editorial (Jan 25) sums up the situation in T&T:
“In Josiah’s death…the whole society is culpable. Josiah’s family failed to fulfil their most basic duty — protect the life of their child. The community failed him, by refusing to get involved even to the extent of reporting the matter to the police. The teachers at Josiah’s school failed, either by not noticing that anything was wrong, or failing to deal with the issue if they did notice. The social services failed from the time Josiah was born, by not identifying the mother and her baby as at-risk. And all the adults in Trinidad and Tobago who believe corporal punishment is justified have tacitly contributed to the cycle of violence which all too easily leads to the killing of children.”
And while we are still reeling from the horrors of all of these dastardly acts against our children, we read that on January 25 the principal of a private school in Maraval placed the heads of an eight year old boy in a toilet bowl and flushed it. She then ordered them to stand outside their classroom for almost three hours after the incident. One father has withdrawn his son from the school and the police are investigating the incident.
T&T needs to put in place Ofsted-type School Inspections (UK), which would include inspections of private schools, to determine the quality of teaching and learning in all educational institutions. School Supervisors are not trained to inspect schools. The welfare of our children is too important to leave it to chance.
I make an urgent plea to all Parish Priests/Parish Administrators to set up ministries in your parishes to reach out to at-risk families and children and to be advocates for them. The foundation of our Church’s social teaching is the sanctity of life and the dignity of each person. By virtue of our baptism, we Catholics must protect and serve the lives of all human beings.
As the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, UK, states: “The future of any community depends on its ability to ensure the health and well-being of the next generation… All children deserve an equal opportunity to experience healthy growth and development. When child abuse and neglect interferes with that opportunity, we put our future at risk.”
While we need our Government to put in place and implement legislation, policies and appropriate infrastructure to protect the nation’s children, we, our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, must also take action to promote justice for them. We can make a difference; we can prevent child abuse.
I want to thank Hollis Eversley for his three suggestions in last week’s Catholic News (CN). Firstly, in relation to the abolition of Capital Punishment (CP) in T&T, see CCSJ’s website for my article in CN about my work on a Committee established in October 2011 to abolish CP in T&T and in the Greater Caribbean (following my participation in the First International Conference on The Death Penalty in the Great Caribbean – held in Madrid and organised by the Catholic organisation, the Community of Sant’Egidio). Please contact me (299-8945) if you wish further information about our work.
CCSJ will consider Mr Eversley’s two other suggestions about establishing
– a Committee to improve the climate of Labour Relations in T&T; and
– a Committee to focus on issues relating to first offenders e.g. working towards a system that would make bail more affordable to the poor and reduce the number of persons on Remand – non-sentenced prisoners.
