DO not shirk your responsibility.

This was ACP Collis Hazel’s message to parents during a town meeting hosted by the Tobago Division, at the Canaan/Bon Accord Multipurpose Facility, Centre Street, on April 9.

During the open forum, a resident said she observed that young people were loitering throughout the community and wondered what the police could do to address the situation.

In response, Hazel said the police have been observing young people roaming the streets of Canaan/Bon Accord and other parts of Tobago.

“But I want to say all and sundry in Canaan/Bon Accord, let us send the message that parents, you have your responsibility.”

Hazel told the audience he attended a church service on April 7 and pleaded with the parents in the congregation to “Let their anchor hold in the storms of life.”

He observed many parents on the island have given up their responsibilities.

“Is you make yuh children. Is you make yuh pickney them. And therefore, you have a responsibility. They eh holding no secret for you. You need to guide the garden and safe protect them so that they can be able to be proud citizens.”

Hazel said as a boy, he could not go into his father’s house after 9pm.

“Yuh best look for somewhere to sleep. But you are seeing all persons all over the road now, late hours in the night and there is not attention being paid to these children. And yet still people ask, ‘What is the police doing?’”

He said, “I am saying to us people in Canaan/Bon Accord/Crown Point, ‘Don’t shirk your responsibility, pay attention to your young ones. And in that paying attention, I am not saying to abuse or to mistreat any one of them. I am asking you to set standards and set sanctions by which they must operate within the confines of your home. And therefore, we will see the change that we are looking forward for.”

Hazel, who is the leader of the Roxborough Police Youth Club, said the police should only intervene in parent-child relationships if it involves law-breaking.

“But it can be solved very proactively by you setting your rules and regulations. This is my house and, therefore, the contract that you want between your child and yourself is to make sure that you must be within the doors of my house at a certain hour

“You will know what you have to do. People take charge of your responsibility.”

Hazel lamented that people no longer subscribe to the adage, ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’

“That and all we have lost because the same village that we talking about to raise the child, when you go and tell the neighbour they vexed with you and they don’t want to hear you.

“So it takes you, who brought your child into this world, to abide by your laws and your rules and, therefore, you need to set your standards.”

Other officers from the Tobago Division’s executive and members of the Defence Force and Fire Services also attended the meeting.

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