A Princess Margaret School student is nursing serious injuries following a violent confrontation outside the school compound this afternoon.
Some reports say the 14-year-old boy lost three fingers during the cutlass attack; but a friend of his family says the digits were not severed, but were “cut down to the bone.”
The second-former is expected to undergo surgery on the hand, and is said to have sustained damage to an ear, as well.
Another student is said to have been chopped on the foot.
REAL News learned that two male students left the compound early and were seen in the company of two other young men, one wearing a hooded shirt and the other a ski mask. The PMS students allegedly pointed out the victim to the young men, who launched an attack on the boy.
In attempting to defend himself, the victim is alleged to have raised his arm, at which time three of his fingers were slashed with the weapon.
Reports say that one of the attackers is a former student of the school and allegedly was incarcerated recently. The other assailant is alleged to be a student at the Antigua Grammar School.
Sources claim the victim does not know his attackers, nor why he was set upon by the pair.
The Police were called to the scene to conduct investigations.
Meanwhile, members of the public have responded to the news with absolute horror, shock and fear. They note that this is not a good start to the school year and are asking about the increased security presence promised by the Cabinet only last week.
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I am so afraid of an incident like this happening at the Sir Novelle Richards Academy. Compound not fenced. Young men ( not in school uniform) loitering around. Bad words left, right and center. Always talk of alleged fights. Please do something there. School should me a safe place. Guardians shouldn’t be worried about their changes being involved in situations like these. Heard of another child being attacked with a cutlass. No Chinese, Syrian, white , East Indian children involved. What is wrong here?
Our children should be taught if they see something that they should say something. Other students saw the young men outside, looking like they were waiting for students to fight. Wearing a ski mask. There was enough time for security and police to have been alerted to intervene. This should never happen again.
im nathan and i attend the princess magret secondary school and for me that experience was very scary because it all happened right in front of me and i think we should increse on male security and should have a search everytime before u enter the compound
Good for you speaking up. You are right to be scared and you have a right to a peaceful education without this type of trauma to remember. Stay focused in these trying times, keep speaking up and saying what you feel and best of luck in your school year young man.
Time for some unpopular action. Find those boys, stripem naked and give them a public beating.
Throwing them in jail/detention isn’t working, may some fear and humiliation will. Certainly they have no fear of the consequences currently.
This is such a sad and disturbing situation but one that is not surprising. There are some young boys attending certain schools who already have a hardened disposition towards violence and have no place being on a school compound. They don’t take school seriously and only aim to be disrespectful to teachers, disruptive in class and abusive to other students. The Ministry of Education needs to have a zero policy towards bullying and violence on school compounds.
The Minister of Education, the Director of Education and the Principal of PM need to ensure that come Monday morning there is increased security presence at the school to search for weapons. They might even need to have a police officer on compound especially at 1:30 when school is over. There also needs to be video surveillance on the compound, and facing the street to monitor for suspicious persons who may be loitering around to pounce on student(s) leaving school. What happened today was premeditated attempted murder and should be treated with the seriousness that it deserves or next time you might be dealing with a murder.
Looks like they listened to you. Just drove by Princess Margaret School and noticed some of the new mobile police officers on bicycles patrolling the area. Great to see. They can also help with the flow of traffic because it gets really congested on that street between 1:30 and 2 pm. If the resources allow they might also try to be pre-emptive and have some officers on patrol at known past hot spots like Clare Hall Secondary and Ottos Comprehensive. Good job by all involved.
The law needs to deal with the perpetrators severely.
I am afraid for my children. Recently I was at a breakfast restaurant and my eyes met up with that of a young man in the restaurant. I am over fifth and this young man could be between 18 to 22 not older. He said to me what are you looking at , don’t look at me. He was ready to attack me. I am think he could beat me in a hand to hand combat. However, I made it clear to him that if he only rest his hand on me I am not going to take it . If these young boys are so aggressive with an adult can you imagine with their pairs. I think in school from early we need to teach conflict resolution. In my day growing up we played together- cricket , football ,hand tennis etc. The girls played hopscotch, marrals , rounders and skip ropes. We ran out on the play field abs shouted first bat , second, third etc . We tossed up a coin and called head or tail when someone not giving up his or her position. We attended to our animals today. One boy had a bicycle we all took turns. Yes we had differences but we know how to solve them peacefully. These days boys don’t do those stuff together, so it should be included in the school curriculum. Like simple having a swinger or slides at the primary schools. We need to do something and quickly.
The police also need to stamp out on all the Pit-bulls and the dog fighting. Our young men is getting numb to seeing blood. We need to act swiftly.
Not the Alma Mater of Alister “inTERllectual” Thomas……..oh yeah he NEVER DID GRADUATE. Where is his SECONDARY SCHOOL CERTIFICATE???? Is it nicely framed and hanging on the wall in Mr. Warner’s house???
What’s wrong with this generation? We need more security, but more importantly to teach our children that violence isn’t the way!! We have a mouth to talk and to settle disagreements like humans…
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