Anchovy High School mourns student killed by gunmen

Students and staff at Anchovy High School in St James have been plunged into mourning after a second-form male student was shot and killed on Friday in his community. 

On Monday, students wept openly at the news that their schoolmate, Randino James, was no longer with them.  

Led by the student services department of the school, a team of grief counsellors from several other schools within the area are now offering counselling to students and teachers on the Fidel Castro Campus of the school in Montpelier.

According to Lavern Stewart, principal of the 51-year-old educational institution, the entire school is in mourning. 

However she said support has come in from external guidance counsellors, members of the parent-teacher association and the ministry of education.

As a result of the emotional impact on the institution from Randino's death, Stewart says end-of-year examinations for second-form students have been suspended to allow sufficient time for mourning.

“We most definitely could not have them sitting an exam at this time based on the emotions that they are facing and dealing with,” Stewart told The Gleaner. 

The exams will be administered at a later date. 

The police say about 6:28 p.m. on Friday, 14-year-old Randino, of Marl Road in Montpelier, was playing a game of football and took a break to shelter at a bar from a sudden downpour of rain when a vehicle drove up and two men alighted. The men entered the bar and opened gunfire on the occupants, hitting James in the upper body.

James was pronounced dead at hospital. 

A 17-year-old female was also shot and injured in the attack.

- Albert Ferguson

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