With three Lester Vaughan Secondary School students charged and expected to appear in court today for violently beating and causing bodily harm to a schoolmate, Opposition leader Mia Mottley says she is hurt by the beating of the student who is nursing serious injuries, and is calling on society to make a collective effort to put an end to violence among the youth.
Speaking during a Barbados Labour Party (BLP) ceremony to honour outstanding men and women in the St Michael South Constituency on Tuesday evening, Mottley said “this community called Barbados” has to start taking care of our young people and teaching them the right way.
She noted that it is simply not just a case of elders in society talking to the youth, but stressed that it has to be a case of talking with them.
The three students charged, one boy and two girls, were seen in a video which has gone viral, beating the female student about her body, as she laid helplessly on the ground.
“This incident with this fighting in the schools and the school girl has hurt me deeply,” Mottley said.
“People must understand why their actions have consequences. A little child does not put his or her hand in fire. Once it goes close to it and they get burn or they feel the heat they don’t go back there again, unless something wrong with them,” she continued.
The incident, which took place last Wednesday, left the young lady shaken and seeking medical attention. There has since been a public outcry condemning the act of violence and for justice to be served.
(AH)