“School has now become a war zone.” That is how Sherwin Noel yesterday described the Brazil High School, where his 16-year-old son, Jodel, was chopped by a cutlass thrown by another student during a massive school brawl.
Speaking with his parents at his bedside at the Arima District Health Facility, Jodel said around minutes to noon a big brawl erupted in the school.
Jodel, who is in Form Four, said the Form Three students appeared to be in the middle of the fracas. He said he was walking in the area of the fight when a boy threw a cutlass in his direction. Jodel was struck a few inches above his left ankle, a wound doctors estimated to be three inches deep, deep enough to hit bone.
Jodel said that same boy who attacked him was subsequently hit in the head with a stone and wounded. The teen said he did not know what the fight was about but now he no longer wanted to return to school. He had previously been in a couple fights before but nothing comparable to that magnitude.
During the interview, the Noel family was told the Arima facility could not further treat Jodel and he would need to be transferred to the Eric Williams Sciences Centre, Mt Hope.
Noel said he and Jodel’s mother, Jamie, were not informed of the fight right away. He said they were called once by the school but Jodel was the one who actually contacted his mother to tell her about what happened. Noel added while the details of his son’s treatment in the school were still unclear, he understood an ambulance was called and Jodel arrived at the Health Facility approximately an hour after he was wounded.
Noel said he intended to take Jodel and his sister, who also attends the school, out of the institution immediately but he is frustrated about where to send them. Noel has five children and he now fears for their safety. “It’s not making sense. Look at what’s going on in the school. There is like a war zone,” the senior Noel said.
He added: “There is only talk and talk and nothing is going on in the school. The teachers and the security officers are not doing anything.
“Children do not want education these days. Any other school they send him to will be the same type of school.
“I don’t know what to do. Best I pull him out of school and put him to work or send him to a trade school.” Noel said he hoped the chop wound to Jodel’s leg did not cause any permanent damage as his son was a goalie on his school’s football team.
The T&T Guardian contacted the Ministry of Education to get a comment on the incident last evening. However, the corporate communication official said while they had heard of the incident they had not yet received any further reports and were investigating the matter.
Efforts to contact Education Minister Anthony Garcia were unsuccessful as calls to his cellphone went unanswered. Recently, National Security Minister Edmund Dillon pledged to work with the Education Ministry to help alleviate violence in schools.