T&T’s bullying culture must change

There is a culture of bullying in T&T that has to change, Tabaquite MP Anita Haynes-Alleyne said yesterday.

“We have to release ourselves from those shackles and go forward as a nation creating a culture that people can go to and thrive from it,” she said.

Haynes-Alleyne commented on the issue when she, along with UNC colleagues Rodney Charles, the MP for Napariama and Chaguanas West MP Dinesh Rambally, took part in a 5K run/walk hosted by the Alumni Association of Presentation College, Chaguanas.

“Over the past few weeks what we have learnt as a nation is that so many persons feel, and legitimately so, a sense of being pressured, bullied in different spheres,” she said.

“We heard students to student and certainly there is peer to peer, we heard about it in the Parliament and I am sure there are teachers, persons in positions of power, who exert that power in a manner that is not conducive to proper mental health or creating a toxic environment.

“What we need to take away as a nation is that we must learn and grow from this. We cannot allow this very significant moment in our nation’s history to pass. We have to come together now to figure out how we culturally shift thinking about a proper schooling environment, places that are non-toxic, places that are supposed to be safe spaces whether its school, your workplace, whether its men’s mental health, women’s mental health.”

Haynes-Alleyne’s comments follow the recent public outcry over the death of Jayden Lalchan, a Form Four student of St Stephen’s College, Princes Town, after allegedly being subjected to bullying.

It was the second time in a matter of days that the UNC MP had spoken out on the issue. She also commented on the issue in her contribution to the budget debate in Parliament.

The post T&T’s bullying culture must change first appeared on CNC3.