NEW Amsterdam Magistrate Sherdel Isaac Marcus, acting on a recommendation contained in a report prepared by Probation and Welfare Officer Ms. Maisie Sheppard, recently committed a 14-year-old lad to the New Opportunity Corps at Onderneeming, Essequibo Coast, until he attains the age of 18 years old, because the lad was in dire need of accommodation and an environment in which he could experience behavioural change in his own interest and that of the society.

Some time ago, the teen was found wandering at John Lewis Street in Mount Sinai, West Canje, East Berbice, and was apprehended and questioned by the arresting Rural Constable, to whom he confessed that he had been evicted from his mother’s home and was looking for somewhere to stay. The teen was taken to the Central Police Station, but was later released.
But on September 12 last, a few weeks after his initial arrest, he was again seen wandering, and a public-spirited citizen took him to the New Amsterdam Police Station, where he could not properly account for his behaviour.
Ms Sheppard of the Probation & Welfare Department was tasked with investigating the lad’s circumstances, and the report she prepared disclosed that the teen’s mother has birthed six children from five different relationships, and that this mother worked on occasions as a bar attendant, domestic keeper, waitress and assistant cook.
Moreover, the teen’s father had terminated his relationship with the teen’s mother prior to his birth.
After completing the National Grade Six Examinations, the teen had secured placement at the Vryman’s Erven Secondary Annex before he was transferred to the secondary department of the Overwinning Primary School; but his stint at that learning institution was terminated with the removal of his name from the school’s register for reasons unknown.
The school’s report reflected that while the teen’s interpersonal relationship with his peers had been deemed satisfactory, the relationship with his teachers was rude and disrespectful. His character traits were described as indisciplined, unreliable, dishonest, and usually angry.
Interviewed, his mother had said that her current living arrangement with her parents precluded her from accommodating her eldest child; besides, she was financially incapable of providing for the lad and his other siblings, who are accommodated at the Alpha Children’s Orphanage.
Sheppard’s report concluded that the teen was another victim of faulty socialisation and parental failure, where the biological mother seemingly made little or no effort to adequately care and provide for, and guide and protect the lad and his other siblings; and that had affected the lad’s positive development, since he apparently was left to fend for himself, with little or no parental assistance.

(Jeune Bailey-Vankeric)