“Going forward, we will treat every occurrence of assault or battery as an expellable offence in schools, and an arrestable offence to put before the courts,” Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar warned yesterday.

She made the statement at the post-Cabinet news conference at the Red House, Port of Spain, where she spoke about the violent attack on a Form Five student of South East Port of Spain Secondary School by three other students on Tuesday.

Persad-Bissessar said: “The teenager suffered a fractured nose, a broken tooth, blood clots in her eyes, and other injuries to her body during the brutal beating. Video footage of the incident shows the three girls concerning, cornering and ambushing the victim in what appears to have been a pre-meditated attack.”