World Mental Health Day: In Trinidad & Tobago, a call to deal with bullying after a student's suicide

‘[E]ach complaint should be assessed on its own, independently and objectively’

Originally published on Global Voices

The 2024 iteration of World Mental Health Day, marked annually on October 10, strives to highlight “the vital connection between mental health and work.” Unhealthy work conditions like stigma, discrimination, and harassment can pose significant risks, affecting mental health, productivity, and quality of life. But what happens when “work” is school, harassment takes the form of bullying, and there's seemingly no place to turn?

One Trinbagonian family faced the heartbreaking answer to that question when their only child, 15-year-old Jayden Lalchan, died by suicide on October 3 after years of alleged bullying at his school. Police are currently conducting investigations into the circumstances surrounding the child's death, after which the case file will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Under the country's Offences Against the Person Act, bullying is considered a criminal offence, but many parents whose children have been suffering from this scourge — including the Lalchans, who say that their complaints went unheeded — insist that not enough is being done.

Accusing the school of failing her son, Fareeda Lalchan said that the bullies “looked for everything to pick on him,” including his accent (the family had moved to Trinidad from the United States), his stutter, and the fact that he still chose to wear a mask post-COVID-19. The threats were allegedly taken online as well, a trend that some link to the introduction of cellular phones, tablets and laptops in schools more than a decade ago.

Meanwhile, Minister of Education Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said that no reports were made about Lalchan being bullied until September 17, when his parents wrote to the class teacher. She also cautioned social media users to behave responsibly after some went about “naming and blaming” another minor: “[A]dults are engaging in the same behaviour, bullying, which they are accusing the young man of.”

The minister mentioned the National School Discipline Matrix, a guide for schools, students, and parents on how to deal with various infractions through “progressive discipline, counselling, and restorative practices.” She added that it was the decision of each school principal whether to send student files to the ministry for more serious disciplinary consequences and that “thus far in this academic year, the number of fights and assaults is below that of last year.”

Despite the inference that the ministry's approach to discipline in schools is yielding positive results, in the wake of Lalchan's death, there was a flood of suggestions on how to deal with bullying.

One Letter to the Editor suggested the introduction of mandatory Psychological First Aid training for all school staff, as well as the implementation of anti-bullying campaigns that “promote a culture of empathy, inclusivity, and respect.” A newspaper editorial suggested that any action that is taken with respect to bullying “must be based on sound research,” include “available and efficient” reporting mechanisms, and prioritise reports by “the most vulnerable victims and most aggressive perpetrators.”

A 2019 National School Climate Report found that more than half of the students surveyed had been pushed or hit, and 61 percent were subjected to verbal bullying. A 2024 survey is currently in progress.

A national culture of bullying?

Even as Minister Gadsby-Dolly suggested that bullying was ingrained into the national culture, Kendell Karan wrote a Letter to the Editor recounting his own experience of being bullied: “When I was a secondary school student, I went out to bat in [a cricket match] between [rival schools], and I will never forget the words I heard from the fielding team when I made a duck. But it was no worse than what I experienced from my own teammates.” Because teachers could also be “unreasonable and unfair,” he developed his own survival system. He explained:

The way I dealt with verbal bullying was to toughen up. I developed high self-esteem; I surrounded myself with way more positive people than negative. The way I dealt with physical bullying was to evade it. School politics is inevitable, and school gossip is inevitable. I had to develop internal strength, thereby peace, and more importantly, enjoy my own company. […] Bottom line, each complaint should be assessed on its own, independently and objectively.

For students who are unable to manage the problem, however, the results can be dire. Local mental health experts report a spike in youth violence and suicides since the pandemic, and a 2021 study about the prevalence of suicide in the country cited the absence of friends, anxiety, frequent bullying, loneliness, truancy, and drug use as contributing factors.

A national suicide prevention hotline was launched in Trinidad and Tobago in 2023. Even as one newspaper editorial outlined the need for “an anti-bullying culture,” police say they have been inundated with calls about schoolchildren going through similar experiences, prompting Facebook user Denny Ablack to comment, “Countrywide, parents of bullied children have given up on school officials and [Ministry of Education] inaction and are reporting bullying directly to the Police now! I believe this creates public records, deadlines and accountability [and] make it more difficult for officials to sweep bullying under the carpet.”

Multiple dimensions to the problem

PrideTT, meanwhile, made the point that not just bullying, but homophobic bullying needs to be addressed, whether it be in schools, places of work, or online.

Jason Jones, the Trinidadian LGBTQ+ advocate who successfully challenged Trinidad and Tobago's buggery laws, commented, “Another absolutely heartbreaking loss of an innocent child. Bullying, sadly, has been a feature of our schools for DECADES, especially targeting students who may exhibit LGBTQ+ identities. This ties in closely to our archaic British Colonial-era laws that criminalise LGBTQ+ citizens and sanctions bigotry against our community.”

The Speak Your Mind Project stressed the importance of dismantling the “toxic masculinity” that leads to “all forms of bullying — whether verbal, non-verbal, or based on homophobia — within our schools, homes, communities, and workplaces.”

The school itself was also a target of online vitriol, with some saying that its efforts — a candlelight vigil, a peace walk, and a statement of sorrow — came too late.

On Facebook, Zorina Shah wondered, “Where was the community when Jayden suffered alone?” Citing the national teachers’ union holiday on October 11, she continued, “[T]o celebrate what? If their membership is only focused on competition, how many passes they can get, and what few scholarships come their way, are they fulfilling their role as stewards for a safe workplace?”

Chandradatt Jagdeo added, “How is it possible that for four years of complaints and bullying, nothing was done for Jayden? [Will] there be any justice in the end, or will he be just another statistic?”

Justice for Jayden?

Gabrielle Hosein, a senior lecturer at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at The University of the West Indies, attempted to dismantle what such justice would mean by first asking some key questions: “How would it help those also being bullied in schools? Who is responsible for ensuring that children can go to school without facing violence? How should bullies be managed?”

She first identified some of the constraints: children's experiences of bullying are often minimised, and parents are made to feel as if they are being overprotective, repeatedly being made to prove their case before action is taken. Schools, which Hosein says “mostly hope that the problem will go away,” can miss many of the nuances of online bullying, or “punish victims for finally reacting defensively […] especially true for children with learning or other disabilities, who are neurodivergent, have anxiety, or who may not fill expectations of masculinity or femininity.”

Real justice would, therefore, involve assessing how many children are actually going through this, figuring out what is not working — including in the home environment that gives rise to bullying behaviour — and putting things in place to mitigate the risk. Hosein also found it noteworthy that the School Climate Report confirmed “about one-third of bullying is related to our beliefs about masculinity and femininity, and the toxicity of homophobia,” which, along with other patriarchal attitudes, is harmful “regardless of [students’] sexual orientation.”

“A whole society needs to recognise this to take responsibility for creating peace,” Hosein cautioned. “We must be brave enough to see how issues are connected even when we don’t think they should be.”

Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has suggested introducing legislation that specifically addresses bullying: “I think we'd call it [the] Jayden Act, to deal with bullying as a whole.”

Written by Flora Thomas