The Manicou Report

I‘m friends with a woman who runs a pre school. She’s a friend of the family and likes to talk. Sometimes she just needs to unload about work, so she gives me all the files on the kinds of parents she meets daily and how bad they can be. Let me tell you something by the way, there are some people who should never be allowed to have children. And

there are others who deserve to have the ones they already have taken away from them. Anyway, I digress. So she began to tell me the story of some neighbours of mine.

There is a boy who came every morning to drop his little brother off at school. The boy looked to be about 10 and Mrs. Ramnarine thought it a little strange that he didn’t seem to be in school. Her school started at 9 and like clockwork every morning, he was there with his brother in tow. So one day she asked him if he went to school. He dipped his head, looked embarrassed and replied he didn’t - that his mother didn’t send him. Mrs. Ramnarine told him to tell his mother she wanted to see him.

The next day his mother brings the brother to school instead of the older son. Mrs Ramnarine finds out from the mother that she actually has three sons, including a newborn - by three different fathers mind you. She was currently living with the father of the baby. The son who brought the child to school was actually 11. She didn’t send him to school (get this) because his father (who lives in the U.S.) was supposed to send for him a long time ago to come live with him there. This was two years ago. Since he’s supposed to go away anyway, she didn’t just bother to send him to school now. Can you believe that excuse? What makes this even more insane is that exactly four buildings away from her house is a primary school. There is yet another school a 15-minute walk away. So if you ever hear that parents can be their children’s worst enemy, believe it. And I guess it helps to ensure that the vicious cycle of poverty is preserved.

She’s just one of the parents that I know of who do this sort of thing. I see the others every day who walk up and down the streets and everywhere else but into the school compound. While I know they are not alone, I think I’d still be shocked at the number of parents who keep their children at home for no good reason at all. However, I probably won’t be surprised to learn how much of an effect absenteeism has on crime. More likely than not, these the same people with the guns.

I have to ask myself then, don’t we have the Community Police anymore? And what exactly is it they do? ‘Cuz I’m acquainted with what they don’t do. Don’t alarms go off when students don’t show up for school? Somehow it seems that either no one cares any more or at least no one seems to be trying very hard.