Boy stabbed to death at school

A fight at a high school in the rural parish of Manchester in Jamaica leaves one teenager dead and others in police custody.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Wednesday May 18, 2011 – A 16-year-old boy is dead and some of his schoolmates in police custody after a fight at a rural school yesterday.

Fourth-form student Haig Williams was reportedly attacked by three male students in a classroom during the lunch break at the Cross Keys High School in Manchester. 

Police say the boy who delivered the fatal stabs has already admitted to his crime.

“During the fight a knife was used to stab one of the students in his side and his leg. He was taken to the Mandeville Hospital by teachers and on arrival he was pronounced dead,” Divisional Commander for the Manchester Police Division, Superintendent Lascelles Taylor, told Radio Jamaica yesterday. “An investigation was carried out and three male students, all from the same class, were taken into custody...One has confessed to doing the stabbing.” 

The senior officer said that the boy would be charged.

Principal Ralph Nelson told the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper that the students had been involved in a dispute in their community the previous day.

He said that many of the pupils at Cross Keys High School came from volatile communities in Mandeville and were rejected by schools closer to home because they were violent and undisciplined.

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