A West Demerara student, who tried to stab his teacher last Friday, has a history of troubled behaviour and might be transferred to another school, says Doodmattie Singh, Regional Education Officer (REdO) of Region Three.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Singh told Stabroek News that the 12-year-old boy “is very aggressive” and has been thrown out of several schools before, after beating up teachers and students. She said the boy was expected to be transferred to a school on the East Bank of Essequibo by Monday, but sources said the child had already been enrolled at a Vergenoegen school.

The REdO confirmed that the child had attacked and stabbed another student at the St. John’s Community High School at Leonora, West Coast Demerara, on Thurs-day, one day before the attack on a female teacher on Friday.

The first form student allegedly attacked the teacher with a broken bottle while he was being disciplined for the Thursday stabbing and that led to a physical altercation. Initial reports reaching this newspaper state that on Octo-ber 30, the student stabbed another boy five times with a piece of wood.

Teachers then ordered both boys to be accompanied by the parents to the school on Friday, but that day, only the wounded child took his mother. The attacker was then ordered to sit on a bench, but instead, ran off and had to be chased by students, who escorted him back into the schoolyard.

Reports state that the boy kicked and cuffed a teacher who attempted to discipline him, before whipping out a broken bottle and threatening to “drop” the teacher “and go back to jail”.

Singh said that teachers at the school threatened not to return to the institution unless the child left. She said one of the child’s aunts had promised to take custody of the boy and move him to the Vergenoegen school.

The REdO said the boy and a younger brother have been moving from school to school after reports that they were constantly beating other children and teachers.

“That child is very aggressive...he beat up the teachers at Patentia School [on the West Bank] and his brother beating up the children and teachers at La Retraite. Those children create havoc at Stewartville Primary School when they were there. It was not a case that the teacher fought with him,” Singh told Stabroek News.

She said the region’s welfare officers had been counselling both brothers for years and had even proposed to have them sent to the New Opportunity Corps at Onderneeming on the Essequibo Coast.

“We are giving them a last try with the aunt. It is not a case that we are not working with these children, but at the same time, we are very concerned for our teachers.”

The child was wounded above one of the eyes during the altercation and the incident sparked an investigation by the police, officials of the Ministry of Education, the Welfare Department of So-cial Services and the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU).

Several statements have been taken to date, but Singh said the region considers the matter already closed. The child may not be prosecuted for the attack on the other child since that child’s parents are reluctant to press charges, Singh said.