Justice Seepersad encourages Morvant Laventille Secondary students to overcome stereotypes

Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

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High Court Judge Frank Seep­er­sad has en­cour­aged stu­dents from Mor­vant and Laven­tille not to let their fu­tures be de­fined by neg­a­tive stereo­types of their com­mu­ni­ties. 

Jus­tice Seep­er­sad made the call on Thurs­day as he de­liv­ered the fea­ture ad­dress at a grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny at the Mor­vant Laven­tille Sec­ondary School. 

“Where you come from is part of your sto­ry. But it will nev­er be the lim­it of your sto­ry. And be­gin­ning to­day, the next chap­ter be­longs en­tire­ly to you.

“Great­ness does not al­ways be­gin in places the world ex­pects, but of­ten, it be­gins in places where the world mis­un­der­stands,” he added.

Jus­tice Seep­er­sad point­ed out that while the com­mu­ni­ty of Laven­tille had been linked to crime and vi­o­lence over the past few decades, it is al­so the home of the steel pan move­ment. 

“From a com­mu­ni­ty which may con­tin­ue to be char­ac­terised as dan­ger­ous or trou­bled, young peo­ple cre­at­ed some­thing so ex­tra­or­di­nary that it is now cel­e­brat­ed across a glob­al stage, as a sym­bol of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he said. 

“These hills have nev­er been de­fined by on­ly one nar­ra­tive. They may have pock­ets of prob­lems, but they are al­so places of pos­si­bil­i­ty,” he added. 

He said that steel pan pi­o­neers, in­clud­ing Win­ston “Spree” Si­mon, were able to de­vel­op the coun­try’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment from dis­card­ed oil drums with­out much for­mal train­ing and ed­u­ca­tion. 

“Ad­just­ments were made guid­ed not by text­books or lab­o­ra­to­ries, but by imag­i­na­tion, per­sis­tence and an ex­tra­or­di­nary sense of pos­si­bil­i­ty,” Jus­tice Seep­er­sad said. 

Jus­tice Seep­er­sad con­grat­u­lat­ed the grad­u­at­ing class for com­plet­ing sec­ondary school de­spite many mem­bers fac­ing chal­lenges. 

“Some of you may have been taunt­ed for com­ing to school. Some had to bal­ance stud­ies with re­spon­si­bil­i­ties at home, and oth­ers had to re­main fo­cused in en­vi­ron­ments where pres­sures could have eas­i­ly led you in very dif­fer­ent di­rec­tions,” he said.

“How­ev­er, you all re­mained present, you at­tend­ed, stud­ied, per­se­vered and to­day you grad­u­ate. That de­serves recog­ni­tion,” he added. 

Jus­tice Seep­er­sad cau­tioned the stu­dents over seem­ing­ly in­signif­i­cant choic­es in their lives which may have long- term con­se­quences. 

“The friends you choose will in­flu­ence your think­ing. The habits you de­vel­op will shape your char­ac­ter. And your char­ac­ter and sense of in­tegri­ty, which will be fash­ioned over time, will de­ter­mine your des­tiny,” he said. 

He en­cour­aged them to help re­de­fine their com­mu­ni­ties by mak­ing a pos­i­tive im­pact. 

“When the next gen­er­a­tion of young peo­ple look to­wards these hills, let them see, not on­ly the his­to­ry of what this com­mu­ni­ty has al­ready achieved, change the cur­rent nar­ra­tive and strive to be­come trail­blaz­ers who are de­ter­mined to build some­thing even greater,” Jus­tice Seep­er­sad said. 

“Your cir­cum­stance may have shaped the be­gin­ning of your sto­ry, but just like those first steel pan pi­o­neers, you have the pow­er in the palm of your hands, to turn pos­si­bil­i­ty in­to great­ness,” he said.