A 16-year-old St Winifride’s Secondary School student was stabbed several times about his body with an ice pick by three boys yesterday afternoon in the school yard at De Abreu and Garnett streets, Newtown.
Anthony Belle of Section ‘C’ Sophia sustained injuries to his hand, head and abdomen. He was receiving medical treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital yesterday afternoon.
His attackers, who were all armed and not students, were still at large up to press time.
The incident stemmed from an ongoing conflict between two gangs in the school. A source at the school said the matter of gang violence in the school was reported to the Ministry of Education numerous times and nothing has been done to address it.
Belle’s friends said that the stabbing stemmed from an argument he was involved in with a third form student earlier in the day. They stated that the third form student and his gang had an ongoing feud with Belle and his friends prior to yesterday.
The situation escalated yesterday after the student had a face-to-face confrontation with Belle over a blackboard around midday. It was during this confrontation that threatening language was exchanged between the parties and the student told Belle he was going to bring “his people”, Belle’s friends said.
They said Belle’s attackers later arrived at the school and attempted to enter the compound, but were prevented from doing so by the guard on duty, who they then threatened.
They then waited outside the school compound for Belle to leave.
When school was dismissed, Belle was in the yard, his friends said, and his attackers, who were outside waiting, approached him with their weapons. One of the weapons was an ice pick. The three boys then asked Belle why he beat their cousin and they began to stabbing him. He fell to the ground as the boys surrounded him.
One of Belle’s friends said “dey start juk he but we couldn’t help he cause dem students did nuff round he.”
Belle’s attackers left the scene telling his friends that they were next.
A teacher of the school said she saw the group of boys fighting but only realised that Belle was involved when she saw his school bag on the ground. She said, “I recognise he from he bag but I din know dey were stabbing him so I hold de boy by he jersey to pull he off and the boy turn round with this long thing [ice pick] so I freeze.”
The teacher backed off when she saw the weapon. She mentioned that Belle is one of the school debaters and is a good student.
The injured student was then picked up and rushed to the hospital for medical attention.
