Injured Pres students discharged
By LAUREL V WILLIAMS, T&T Newsday
THE TWO Presentation College, San Fernando students who were injured in a stabbing incident, have been discharged from the San Fernando General Hospital. Parents of the two boys, Newsday was told, have been in discussions with each other to see if criminal charges could avoided.
Yesterday, Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh said that students at this school are like brothers to each other and therefore they ought to protect, love, cherish and respect one another as young men and continue doing so as adults, after their school life ends.
“Make friendships now that can stand the test for 40 and 50 years when you go on to become young men and senior men like myself. The friendship and love that I request you to develop as young ones with your classmates and college mates, will last for your life,” Gopeesingh told students during a visit yesterday to the school.
His visit came on the heel of the stabbing incident at the school compound on Monday which resulted in two students sustaining injuries. The students, ages 14 and 15, were both discharged from the San Fernando General Hospital on Tuesday evening.
Gopeesingh added that he has great appreciation for the school’s conduct over the years and referred to the stabbing incident as “some degree of dysfunctionality” which probably existed between two schoolmates.
The Minister reminded students that they are attending a college which nurtured two of this country’s prime ministers — Patrick Manning and Basdeo Panday. “So the morals, values, ethics and discipline of this school is no less than others and stands paramount and tall in the way in the traditions of your school. As Martin Luther King said, the longest journey begins with a short, single step,” Gopeesingh said. The Minister instructed the students to hold each other’s hands as he had them repeat a pledge to support, love and respect each other. In unison the schoolboys, holding hands repeated: “I pledge as a student of Presentation College to love and respect all my classmates and schoolmates from now on and so God help me, to carry this pledge through my school days.”
“All our students in Trinidad and Tobago are great...you will continue to do well, let us see if we can. We will have memories of it, now move forward. Aspire to be the best so even when though you fall short of it, you would have reached the stars...You are here to get your education and so grasp it,” the Minister added.
A police report stated that the altercation between the two schoolboys occurred at the school’s basketball court. The report added that the younger student stabbed the other in the back and chest. It further stated that last week the older student placed a cockroach in the school bag of the 14-year-old, who is said to be terrified of insects. The younger student had also accused the elder one of bullying him.
Commenting on the incident, school manager Msgr Christian Pereira acknowledged that all wrong behaviours have consequences. However he charged that there is a nobler level of relationship. He said that although the students are aware that there is a level of punishment, they realised that the guilt and the shame were enough suffering for them.
He explained that neither family wants to press charges but rather want to see how the experience can teach their respective sons to become better young men.