In the wake of an assault meted out to a Venezuelan student from the Queenstown Secondary School, Guyana’s Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud is urging all Guyanese to treat all persons with respect and tolerance.
For him, it is a simple matter of tolerance and acceptance but he also pointed out that Guyanese have similarly migrated to other nations and would appreciate the same level of respect.
“We have in excess of 800,000 Guyanese in the global diaspora.
“We would want our Guyanese people to be treated fairly, with respect and in accordance with the law. We would want their children to be given the type of acceptance, encouragement and support,” the Foreign Secretary said on Wednesday during an interview with the News Room.
Furthermore, the Foreign Secretary noted that it is a matter of deliberate policy that Guyana has always been welcoming to migrants. That country has signed onto many of the necessary international agreements and it has made its services readily available to immigrants, he said.
So, Persaud said the seemingly isolated incident must not recur and again stain Guyana’s welcoming posture.
Following the circulation of a video recording of the assault last Friday, the Ministry of Education immediately launched an investigation into the matter. The incident occurred in the vicinity of the Bank of Guyana on the Avenue of the Republic, Georgetown.
In a video that was posted on the Facebook group: ‘Venezuelans in Guyana’, the schoolgirl is seen being slapped around and tugged on by other schoolgirls. Other students from the same school could be heard cheering the bullies.
On Monday morning, officers in the ministry’s Secondary Sector Department met with the parents and children involved in the incident and several actions were taken after a probe.
Scheduled and mandatory counselling, suspension and transfers were some of the actions taken for the short and medium term.
