I WISH to highlight the undesirable manner in which students of  Zeeburg Secondary School are being treated. Last term students were forced and blackmailed into buying Bar-B-Que tickets, and when they could not pay for those tickets, they were further insulted and degraded by senior teachers in front of other students. I am compelled to write this letter because this is not the first time for such an occurrence; in fact it is now the means used to sell tickets and to raise money. In some cases, those who refuse are victimised by these teachers. They are reminded that they will need recommendations from the office and subsidies. The reasons for these fund raisers are unknown since many departments of the school are lacking resources, and as far as I know, the Ministry has expressed its disapproval of teachers selling tickets, collecting and demanding monies; and the abuse our children is prohibited,  be it physical or emotional . Recently a grade eleven student preparing to write examinations was suspended for three weeks for having a tattoo on his arm. The very first day of school he was wearing a long sleeve shirt to conceal the tattoo; he was told that when the tattoo is removed he would be accepted at school, at such a critical time, when teachers would have been doing revision, working on the weaknesses of students and doing remedial classes. How sound is the advice of the guidance councillor to send home the child and that he should only be accepted when the tattoo is removed, not an easy task for an adult, much less a child. Teachers are there to protect and mould our children, no one is perfect but it is important that we make sure that we learn from our mistakes. As such, this student should have been counselled rather than deprived of an education. Every child has a right to an education regardless of his race, religion, nationality and a tattoo should not deprive that child of his right.

The Ministry of Education should investigate these matters since I am sure that these are not the only abuse measured out to our students at Zeeburg  Secondary  School.
M. ALLI