Empty seat, dejected hearts

When classes ended last Friday, there were 1,101 students enrolled at the Frankfield Primary and Infant School in northwest Clarendon.

When classes resume today after a two-day strike by teachers, there will be 1,100 students at the school.

The seat assigned to five-year-old Evan Sebastian Spencer will be empty and it will be left to principal, the Reverend Dr Donald A. Johnson, and his team to console the students who will come face to face with the fact that their friend is never coming back.

"The guidance counsellor and I will be doing grief counselling and we will be getting assistance from the Victim Support Unit in May Pen," Johnson told The Gleaner yesterday as he prepared for a tough morning.

"The killing of the youngster is particularly heart-rending in this, a quiet, tightly knit community," Johnson added.

"I cried all day Sunday when I heard," said Heather Carr, a teacher at the school, as she pointed to the seat which will remain empty.

Evan entered the school last September and had made many friends despite being one of those children who sat quietly for most of the day, The Gleaner learnt.

"We a go miss him," one little girl said as she spoke with The Gleaner, metres from the school they both attended.