A THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD delinquent secondary school student was last week ordered to attend counselling, at the Probation and Welfare Department, after she confessed to wandering before Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo.

Following the guidance sessions, the teenager must return to New Amsterdam Court, in Berbice, for further evaluation, the magistrate instructed.

The instruction was issued after Probation and Welfare Officer Maisie Sheppard reported that information, from the Berbice Education Institute, is that the teen was absent 20 times during the Christmas term and is frequently late for school.

The report said, during the months from January to March, the girl was absent 38 times and late on 12 occasions.

Sheppard said her interpersonal relationship with teachers and peers was unsatisfactory and character traits unmannerly and unreliable.

She added that the student’s performance was below average, resulting in her having to repeat Form One.

The headteacher, Ms. Sharon Patterson-Bourne informed that the student gained 40 per cent marks at the last end of term test and her mother said her daughter could be seen ‘liming’ at Main and Pitt Streets, New Amsterdam.

In addition, the teen would leave home for school and not return for days and weeks while, sometimes, walking the streets aimlessly with deviant persons and wandering with school dropouts.

Sheppard said her investigations also revealed that the offender has developed a promiscuous lifestyle and, having been the product of an unstable home environment, continues to demonstrate wayward tendencies.

The officer said it is unfortunate that the juvenile was exposed to double standards at  a tender age which now affects her positive development and ability to improve her academic performance.