Friday September 25, 2009

                                     Principal Mr. Deanroy Bromfield

Sadness continues to stalk the Excelsior campus as grief counsellors, staff, Ministry of Education officials and members of the Excelsior fraternity work to comfort students wracked by the sudden death of two more of their peers.

Nash Campbell, a sixteen year-old recent transfer to the school, was shot and killed in downtown Kingston on September 4, just prior to the start of the new school year. Days later, on September 18, fourteen year old Lodonna Lewis was also felled by bullets in West Kingston.  Also this week, a third student was run over by a motor vehicle near the Bus Depot in Half Way Tree but survived.

Coming on the heels of the death earlier this year of  Aneika Hayden, who was killed by a stray bullet, it marked the third time in a matter of months that an Excelsior student had met an untimely end courtesy of gunmen.

“We are all saddened that our children are at such great risk” Principal Mr. Deanroy Bromfield told AgeNotes “to the extent that three of our children, in fact three girls have been killed by shooting in this calendar year”.

The Principal said he had been fielding calls of support and offers of condolence as the school tries to cope with yet another tragedy.

“It has been a difficult period for us as the Excelsior Community attempts to deal with the murder of two schoolgirls within a matter of days”

“As you can imagine, the families of both students are grief stricken and many of their close friends are traumatized” Mr. Bromfield said.

“Tremendous support has been provided by the Committee of Management, the Methodist Church, the Past Students, the P.T.A. and the Ministry of Education and Youth as we continue to pray for strength and reassurance".