Trauma concerns as Grange Hill students return to school

WESTERN BUREAU

Despite the inclement weather, students in Grange Hill, Westmoreland, who were forced to abandon classes last week as a result of the violence that impacted their community last Tuesday, returned to school yesterday morning.

However, while the students were quite relieved to be back in the classroom, several educators expressed concerns about the possible long-term effect on the youngsters of last week's violence, which resulted in seven persons being shot dead and several left nursing bullet wounds.

Paulette Hilton, senior guidance counsellor at Grange Hill Primary School, told The Gleaner yesterday that, while classes have resumed, a sense of fear still hung over the students.

"It is really sad, because we really want to return to normal. But what has happened has taken a toll on the children, and on their parents, too," said Hilton.

"On Thursday when we came back [following the shootings], I did a debriefing session with the few children who were here. We talked about what had happened, and we talked about the child Nicoy Bourne (who was killed)," Hilton disclosed.

In addition to 12-year-old Bourne, those killed included his mother Nadine Rowe, Joyan Myer, Tristan Brown, Odane Drummond, as well as Sheldon Morgan and his two-year-old son Sheldon Jr.

Like Hilton, Ricardo Brown, principal at Paul Island Primary School, was worried that his students, some of whom lost relatives in the violence sparked by feuding gangs, have been desensitised because of previous exposure to violence.

"Many of our students here have had siblings who died through horrific situations, and they use it as bragging rights," said Brown. "These incidents would have happened when they were probably eight or nine years old. For them, it's okay."

Koren Fraser-Williams, principal of the Peggy Barry Primary and Infant School, said she has arranged counselling sessions for her students with the school's guidance counsellor as part of efforts to resettle her students.

At Grange Hill High School, classes were progressing smoothly, albeit with below-par attendance, which principal Errol Stewart blamed on the heavy rains that lashed western Jamaica on Sunday night.

"There is the issue of the weather, because you have students and teachers coming from areas like Little London and Negril. We have received calls that they are stranded in some areas; so we are waiting to see what happens," said Stewart.

- Christopher Thomas