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OPPOSITION Leader Pennelope Beckles challenged Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to state specific measures to both reduce school violence and help youngsters to develop, addressing a briefing at her office in Port of Spain on June 9. While Beckles supported the discipline plus rehabilitation of errant pupils, she questioned the UNC's degree of empathy.

On June 5, the PM lamented cases of school violence, speaking after reports of three pupils beating up a girl at South East Port of Spain Secondary School.

Persad-Bissessar said, “Going forward we will treat every occurrence of assault or beating as an expellable offence in schools and an arrestable offence to be put before the courts.