Dwayne Anthony - Concerned Citizen: 'If the teachers are beating the children, it means that the children must have been doing something wrong. I don't have a problem with corporal punishment in the schools. I think that if children fight in school or curse the teacher then they should be beaten for that. When the children are at home they should be disciplined. I think that the use of a belt when flogging is suitable. When the children get licks with the belt they would understand. But it is brutal to use a piece of wood when beating children.'
Beverley Somerset - Soldier: 'Corporal punishment should continue. Some of what children do at home comes out in the schools. There must be some standard of what happens in the schools in terms of discipline. Parents should discipline their children at home too. I blame parents for some of what is going on. Discipline starts at home.'
Maurice Thomas - Security Officer: 'I don't agree with it because licks don't change anything. I recommend suspension from classes and from school. If you don't want to get suspended and miss valuable classes then you have to behave yourself. As child, I remember being put on a grater to kneel as a form of punishment. I would recommend forms of punishment other than corporal punishment.'
Joyce McIntosh - Private Sector Employee: 'Corporal punishment should remain in schools. You have to pull the children up. You hear of children in the US shooting teachers and this happens because teachers there cannot discipline them. But although I support the use of corporal punishment I think that there should be some standard, since some teachers get rough with children. I don't want to see children get beaten to the point of abuse. To avoid all of this I think that parents should bring up their children in the right way. Some parents want to go to the school to cuss the teacher when they hear that their children were beaten.'
Reagan Cabral - Student: 'Corporal punishment in schools should be abolished since it is physical violence. There are other means of disciplining a child who does something wrong. Beating is something that we have from colonial times. I believe that if we talk to children they will understand and they will listen to us. In the home is the first place that we should stop beating. If you show children love then you don't have to beat them. Sometimes the child might do something that is not deserving of a licking but they get one anyway because the parent may take out whatever is bothering them on the child.'
Desiree Livan - Self-employed: 'I survived getting licks in school. I think that a child should get a few lashes if he or she does something wrong. Once the teacher does not abuse the child then it is OK. If they do something wrong then they have to get a few lashes.'
Tony - Vendor: 'If they do something wrong then they have to get lashes. The children have to know that they are going to school to learn and not to do stupidness. If they continue to do stupidness then the teacher has a right to beat them.'
Ivor Reynolds - Electrician: 'I support corporal punishment in schools because for most of the day the teachers are the children's guardians, so they have to bring them up straight.'
Charleslyn Soso - Self-employed: 'Corporal punishment in schools should be banned since it is the ill treatment of children. Sometimes it's a case where the parents and teachers don't talk, the teachers would take it out on the students. There could be alternatives to beating. If the child has to go on an outing then tell him or her that he or she cannot go anymore. The same can be done for a party that the child might have been looking forward to. I think that that would be affective.'
Sally Heera - Housewife: 'Corporal punishment should be banned in schools because it is cruelty to children. I never got licks when I went to school. Beating should also be banned in the home since it could lead to that child being traumatised. People could consider safe alternatives to beating.'
Seeta Singh - Ex-headmistress: 'I am a retired head teacher and I got by with corporal punishment. I think that it is needed. A few lashes here and there would be good for the students. I believe too that it is necessary in the home. But I do not advocate that children be brutalised.'