Pocketknife stabbing at JGHS
(CNS): Update Wednesday 8:00pm — A stabbing incident at the John Gray High School this morning (Wednesday, 25 November) has been described an “altercation” between two female students, who have both been suspended from school pending an investigation. One girl received medical attention immediately at the school for two non-life threatening lacerations to her chest, apparently with a pocketknife. She was taken promptly to the George Town Hospital and, was due to be released this afternoon. (Photo courtesy News27)
According to the Education Ministry, the student alleged to have caused the injuries in this case was also involved in a previous incident during the last school year that resulted in another student being injured with a pen. The student was reintegrated into the school following disciplinary action and supportive intervention, according to release from the ministry. An RCIPS spokesperson told CNS the 911 Emergency Services received a call at 10:10am reporting the stabbing. The female suspect was taken into custody at the West Bay Police Station.
The ministry reported that a member of staff was in the process of interviewing one of the students when the other arrived and a confrontation ensued. This confrontation resulted in one student allegedly injuring the other with a pocketknife which had been hidden on her person. A teacher received a superficial injury when she and a security guard intervened, thereby preventing the incident from escalating.
The RCIPS responded to a call from the school within minutes and the incident is presently under police investigation, the ministry said. The school has instigated its standard response to serious incidents of this nature. The parents of the students involved were immediately notified and have been assisting in the case. The two students will be excluded from the school pending full investigation and a multi-disciplinary assessment will be undertaken and an intervention response decided. The students and staff of the school will be fully briefed in the morning and counseling will be made available.
Education Minister Rolston Anglin, Chief Officer Mary Rodrigues and Chief Education Officer Shirley Wahler visited the school this afternoon and have been fully briefed on the incident. Wahler noted that since September 2009, John Gray High School has initiated procedural changes which have significantly reduced the number of disciplinary incidents and the number of suspensions at the school. This was the first violent incident involving a student bringing a weapon into the school compound this school year. It is recognized that this is a serious incident, but it appears at this time that it involves a personal dispute between the two students and pertains to matters arising out of school, the release said.
Any parents of students within John Gray High School with any questions should contact the Principal’s Office at 938-8571.
Category: Headline News
Rather than wait around for this to happen to my two children attending the brutal George Hicks and John Gray with daily fights and horrendous acts of bullying, I pulled them out and sent them to the States to be homeschooled. My sacrifice is separation to offer them a safer means of completing their education without fear and unhappiness. Why can they not achieve this here in Paradise I ask? There is no excuse and frankly no hope that the problems existing now and for some time will be curbed as no one is taking responsibility and being honest about just how bad it is! When the presence of teachers and security guards have no effect on these hooligans, we have to recognise just how serious this problem is. Parents have to do better with their children. These kids are picking up every bad habit they see at home and taking it out on the innocent ones or worse meeting up with equally messed up kids and the result is just this – Headlines for the local paper!
This girl is 17. She should be removed from the school permanently and hopefully the police will charge her with something. As far as the people who have "sympathy" for this baby, she is an adult and not a baby. I say adult because at 16, according to Cayman Law, you can go ahead and have a baby if you like!
I know you will all bash me for speaking the truth below, but until we actually start making these young adults live with the decisions they made, NOTHING will change.
As they say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, so I do hold the parents responsible as well for not raising your children right. Yes, there are great parents that end up with lousy children, but that is only 1%.
Stop letting nannies raise your children. I realize again that there are wonderful nannies out there, some probably do a better job than the real parents, but overall there is nothing like good parental nurturing.
Men, stop having children out of wedlock! Sleeping around, spreading your seeds is NOT helping anything, and you are making society face some major ills. You should never have to tell someone that a woman is "your baby’s momma" and that is all. Shame on you!
Women, stop letting men have children with you who aren’t going to stick around. You can spot them, be wise, if they already have children with someone else and they never married them, YOU will be no different, run as fast as you can.
Young adults, stop being children. As adults you have totake responsibility for your actions (despite what you might have learned in this society!). Every decision you make today will affect the REST of your life, both good and bad decisions. Learn from each decision you make in this life.
Community, stop protecting the bad seeds. It doesn’t matter if they are related to you or not STOP protecting them. If you don’t, this little paradise is going to be nothing more than an island Atlantis with lots of mosquitoes. When 150 people witness a murder and no one comes forward, that shows that all of you are cowards.
and what exactly do you know about "this girl" and her upbringing? Very little by the sound of it. Some people just need our help, tragedy is a hard thing to get over all by yourself.
And no, I’m not trying to excuse her for what she did or has done but some of these young people can and should be helped by a society that is failing them.
"And no, I’m not trying to excuse her for what she did"
Actually that is what you are exactly doing you are making excuses for her actions.
Until young adults are forced to understand there are reprecussions for their actions this type of thing will continue.
If this young woman is not punished properly then others will see there is no punishment for their actions.
I’m going to go ahead and presume that you are one of the 2% of the illiterate population. My point was and continues to be that the system and society have failed this child. Yes, she is still a child, age is just a number.
Once again, for your benefit, the failures of others do not excuse her actions and she should be be punished appropriately.
reread your post, you state you are not excusing it then why bring up her background? the only reason to do so is as an excuse for her behaviour.
so why did you bring up her background?
You are incorrect, the orginal poster brought up her background in the form of assumptions and generalisations. I just happen to know a bit about her background.
For the third time, what she did was wrong and deserves punishment, irrespective of her background.
The original posters lock them up and throw away the key mentality which you all seem to be so vehemently trying to defend is part of the problem, not the solution.
That is all.
"My point was and continues to be that the system and society have failed this child"
That sounds like an excuse to the other 98% of the population
You seem to love to contradict yourself
WOW! You couldn’t have said it better! I went to JGHS in the 90’s and even back then we had problems. I was attacked a couple of times and I had to get my Parents and the Principle involved to solve the problems.
Parents nowadays, have to start paying attention and start taking more responsibility for their offspring. This problem is not going to go away any time soon, it’s only going to get worse.
I have 2 kids ready to go to Middle school and everyday I am agonizing about how I am going to deal with it,and reading up on what is happening at this school does not make me feel any better!
To me it just a part of growing up i gratuated from school 20yrs ago and to me nothing has change, there would always be bullies in school no matter what and i have even been in fights in school in my days because bullies would’nt leave me alone and yes back then a student staba fellow student with pencil i’m not defending these two girls I am just trying to remind you all that nothing has change because some of you on here songs surprise by this event, and make it song like a big crime and to put icing on this I seen fights in school from primary and that is more than 20yrs ago and yes we had students bringing knifes and iron knuckles to school back then as well and this speak from experience from how school is no different than back then where students is concern when it comes to fighting.
Does this school have an "in-house suspension room" where students who misbehave are removed from the classroom and sent there for the day? This way those students do not interrupt the learning from the rest of the student body and they also can not continue to "act up" in front of their peers. In this room, there is no talking, only working on class room assignments. No lunch with the rest of the students. How about Saturday morning detentions?
As for violence in the schools- besides installing metal detectors, it is pretty hard to stop weapons from being brought in. Metal detectors aren’t even 100% . Peer mediation, peer mentoring programs, student leadership awards and at-risk counseling help. Good luck Cayman!
Will kicking her out of school be benefactive to the child? Why not suggest an alternative, suspend the child but allow her to go to the suspension unit, withdrawl room for th remainder of the school year or something. I do not believe this child is right for what she did. She is WRONG! but she is still a child, and needs an Education and kicking her out of school will not solve the problem, but only create more I fear. She may become pregnantat a young age, or god forbid, end up in Fairbanks or dead!! This child needs help! Counceling for her and her parent (s)! come on CAYMAN, OUR YOUTH NEED US FOR GUIDANCE!!!
I couldn’t agree with you more!!
Kicking her out is NOT the solution however if she has been arrested, depending on her age and type of judiciary body that will deal with this, this matter could very possible have a more negative and adverse impact on her life. Disciplinary action is definitely required but we should not try to create another ‘burden’ to society when we have the chance to provide positive leadership and influence over this child’s life. Maybe the lack of this is why her problem has surfaced………Think about it!!!
As a parent I would not want scum who stab children in my child’s class. Generally I find being stabbed is not "benefactive" to a child, whatever that was meant to mean. We have become too soft on those who behave outside minimum standards of decency. There is never an excuse for this type of behaviour and if we give people excuses as children they carry that "excuse" mentality into adulthood. Read all the posters on CNS who are apologists for thieves and muggers because they are unemployed – they still chose to become criminals.
What troubles me most about this is the mention of "ten security guards" on this campus by the Education Minister. Has it really come to that? What ashame. That said, this is nothing new. I witnessed concrete blocks being thrown at teachers and girls biting chunks out of each others breasts, to mention but two incidents there in the early 90’s. It was just dealt with differently.
Trouble is, most of the trouble makers of those days are either locked up or dead now.
I was a victim and a suspect at the same time when a incident happened at a government school, where I was being bullied. Me and my parents took the right actions to resolve the problem but it all fell through the lines as usual and nothing was done. It became where I was afraid for my life so I made the decision to carry a knife to school to protect myself. Even though the knife was not used because I was searched due to my so called friend informing the teacher when she was caught with her weapon(knife).
For my punishment I was also locked up in West-Bay for three days, and I was put behind the library where you could’nt learn anything for a almost a month and I also had to check-in like a criminal until my parents sent me to boarding school for a year. What happends to those that there parents cannot afford overseas schools due to financial problems as these days are very hard, and having incompetant leaders of our schools who brush things under the rug.
This may not be this girls situation but I just want to support young people who have to go through bulling this goes on in Cayman and this really needs to be looked into because it dose’nt end all the time with the victim fighting back they can also take there own lives because this is the only resoloution they have. Parents please form a good relationship with your children because they dont have to tell you everything.
My son was bullied by a gang at a private school in the first year of middle school. The leader was the son of a very prominent politician. The school did nothing to resolve this situation presumably because they didn’t want to lose their work permits or upset the parents. One teacher told me to tell my son to toughen up. At one time, 7 boys ganged up on him in the bathroom. Eventually, the gang "ordered" all the other kids not to speak to him so he was completely isolated during breaks. If it hadn’t been for some older students looking out for him, I don’t know what would have happened. It was absolute hell for my child who was 10 at the time. It made him physically sick and I thank God that I could move him to another school where bullying is simply not tolerated.
On another occasion, I saw a middle school student jump in he sea across the road from where I work. He was wearing his school uniform. An adult jumped in to save him and the student fought him. Eventually the man managed to get the boy back in. This was absolutely horrifying that a child so young felt that the only solution was to end his life.
Bullying and gangs are a huge problem here and we have to do whatever we can to make sure our kids are safe in school.
This kind of bullying is a worldwide issue and having experienced it myself as a youth, to some extent I feel that the teachers were right in saying that your child should ‘tough up’.
"One teacher told me to tell my son to toughen up."
He’s right you should have.
you’re an IDIOT. Carrying a knife to school ? And you have justified this in your mind how? You’re friend also got caught with a knife? Nice friends you associated yourself with. Once you start carrying a knife you are no longer a "victim" and instead become the person who you hate, the "bully".
Your post simply shows the ignorance of those who take the "wrong path" as opposed to those who take the "right path".
I hope no one has read your post and too think it is justified to carry a "weapon" to school.
It is most sad to say the least that this kind off violence is now into the schools. However to be quitely honest it has been brewing for sometime now and part of the reason why is has continued, is the failure of the admit that there is a problem and how to effectively deal with this.
That is why I am in full supprt of the meeting being called at the Mary Miller Hall this saturday Nov 28 at 5:00 – 7:30 pm for public school parents to address this and other problems facing the schools!
I implore that ALL PARENTS who have an advid interest in seeing to the wellbeing of their child’s education make every effort to attend and let your voices be heard. come out and show your support for a worthy cause.
For a few hours, there was nothing detailed about what happened. The title changed, hency why the comment was made by the person.
Blame the Parents!
After witnessing the way these kids act during Pirates Week & the outfits they where, it’s really no surprise the trouble they get into. Yes…it pobably is over a boy & quite understandable. How many teen pregnancies do we have to have until we react to these issues? Who in the end is ultimatley responsible? You know who you are & your’re reading this.
I don’t believe what you wear changes what you are. Young people on this island as with the rest of the world like to experiment with clothes and good on them.
No, the problem is with some and I hasten to add not all young people have for some reason down the line lost respect for others, blame TV, parents, computer gaming what you will, the fact remains within a generation compassion, respect call it what you like, has almost disappeared. This has been happening practically worldwide, not just here. I believe it is because this generation have grown up without too much hardship, parents seem to pander to their every whim. I actually saw a 2 – 3 year old having an argument with his mother in Lime about which mobile phone he wanted…..the child won the argument!
I also think that at school discipline has gone. I don’t agree with severe punishment ie, caning, but using verbal discipline has been taken away from the teachers.
Like I said at the beginning of this piece this does not apply to all young people. There are some very fine examples of high achievers on this island. Just seeing them on the parade in Pirates Week saw to that.
Unfortunately it is not these young people who get the headlines, it is the same world over the minority ruin it for the majority.
It is truly sad that this is happening in our public high school. I am a former student of that school, having graduated back in the 70’s. It was then called The Cayman Islands High School (yea I’m in my 50’s!!) and this sort of behaviour was unheard of. If it did happen I can tellyou that it would have been dealt with much differently. In fact we would not have dared to be so foolish! Children had respect and yes, also feared their teachers and parents because we knew that serious consequences would come to bear from the faculty and our parents.
Having made the above comments I also want to take this opportunity to publicly thank my former teacher, Mr Roy Bodden, who we are now lucky enough to have as the new President of the University College (UCCI). Already the changes he is making is obvious on campus, for example the dress code for students AND teachers has changed and looks more professional, students loitering around the campus and congregating in "groups" sitting on tables has diminished and the general atmosphere is improving. Mr Bodden is of the old school: professional and respectful but firm and fearless and I thank God for him being there.
Thank you dear "teacher" for taking up the helm of this important institution, you are in my prayers for continued wisdom, good health and, yes, protection.
No respect for human life !
Lately in the US girls are fighting girls more than boys fighting boys. Young people need to learn how to resolve their conflicts non violently. What ever happened to fighting as a last resort? What happened to cause this person to stab another student in the chest? I bet you it was something minor. Parents talk to your kids about using self control or we are in trouble when this new generation become adults.
A concerned parent
This kind of "isolated incident" sounds oh, so familiar.
A few years ago in the UK a series of "isolated incidents" starting happening and nothing was done about it. Consequently over a period of time these sort of crimes have got way out of control. Pupils as well as teachers have been seriously maimed or killed. To my mind not enough was done at the beginning to stop teenagers carrying knives of any shape or form and it has become the "norm" for some youngsters to carry.
UK now has a very big problem with knife wielding teenagers, not just in the big cities I might add.
A knife does not have to be very big to kill someone, I believe now is the time to educate the young about the dangers of knives, before somebody is very seriously injured or killed and stop the ruination of some young persons life, just because they had a trivial argument.
Isolated? No way, in fact this same girl did the same thing already and was allowed back to school – I wonder if she will be allowed back after this latest incident!
I am very sadden by what is happening in our Island. I attended a private school and never witnessed a fight happen. Most of my friends attended JGHS and back then things like this didn’t happen. I am sorry to say they might need to do what the States does and that is for each kid to walk through the detectors like in the airports and have the bags checked as soon as the enter the school. I am sorry to say but my kids will not be attending a public school if this continues to happen.
Are these kids really the future of our Islands? They need to be stopped.
And I Pray to God that this isn’t over a "boy"
You are pathetic, is that all you can think about, a child has been hurt, and another is now facing serious charges. Leave the police let them do their jobs, be more concerned about the young people of this island, and what the future hold for them.
You should be thinking about what guidance you can give to them, lets not be side tracked about the issue at hand.
Go and pray for the young people and also for the police that they may do their jobs in the right and proper way.
Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawd! Sen help!!!!
This is just one of the incidents that was actually reported publicly. A few months ago another student was stabbed witha pen/pencil in the eye, more recently a male student was attacked by another and when approached by a security guard he punched and knocked the security guard down. I know of a student who was being threatened by a gang of 10-15 girls and that was placed in withdrawal for "protection" while the other girls were free to roam about! The teachers have lost control of their students, they have security guards and police on the compound but yet there is no fear from the students. Parents need to step up, pay attention to their children’s behavior and to ensure that they are properly punished when necessary – it all starts at home because if there is no punishment for doing wrong why should they children be afraid of doing wrong?
One sad reason that societies decline further and further into what would be considered (in a normal society) anti-social behaviour is that people see the decline and then are less inclined to teach their children to behave differently. No one likes to admit it, but the reason is simple, if everyone else is not raising their children properly, then I better toughen mine up! We view good behaviour as soft and bad behaviour as hard, and when others are being bad, we automatically gravitate to being hard. So how do we break this cycle.
First I think that we need some real numbers. Education, Economics and Statistice, Police and others gathering statistics need to give us the whole story, and update it often. We need to stop being afraid of facts becasue we can only address our issues with methodologies based on facts. If I have the facts then maybe I won’t feel that I have a high school full of thugs when they have only had say 3 incidents in a 1000 student body population, at a campus that has been halved by a construction project, during a recession when everyone is stressed out and the TV line-up is nothing but CSI, MMA and some really questionable adult-themed cartoons.
Secondly we need to praise thosethat are not falling victim to these anti-social behaviours. Not patronize them, but truly recognize them in a public way visible by their peers so that they can see what they can do.
Third we need to encourage them constantly so that they believe that they are worth something and are able to accomplish something. Whether this is done from the individual point of view or through organized events/programs it will have an impact. We can do this simply or in a complicated way. I prefer the simple way, grab some kids, dedicate some time and energy to them.
God bless you all, God bless the Cayman Islands, O land of soft fresh breezes. and God bless the homes of our many visitors, residents and status-granted Caymanians. One.
I would like to thank the person who commented on Thu, 11/26/2009 – 00:08 for your very articulate and well thought out words of wisdom. You are so very right.
Before the firestorm of comments begins – kindly allow me to remind all expats of the state of the student body in their respective nations.
USA / UK / Europe (mass murders by way of organised school shootings as well as the ever present knife attacks – UK in particular.)
Okay…
On your marks … s-e-t … GO!!
(Oh yeah – now you can instead criticize me for being over-defensive as you pretend that you weren’t about to post a biased comment.)
Anyway – this is a serious situation. To the accused young lady – shame on you!
To the teacher – sounds like you may be a bit of a hero – good looking out!
Happens all over the place. Have a look:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting
It’s just a matter of time until the students here are strapped for self-defence and in open warfare.
You will find any opportunity to bring this up wont you. Go find something to do.
You cannot compare Cayman with these countries. I would imagine if you worked out the amount of attacks "per school child" the rate is much higher here.
I gave you a thumbs up. While I suspect others gave a thumbs down based on perceptions that you weren’t being constructive, and while I try my best to be constructive, I fully agree with your sentiments. I hope no one takes my comments as negative, but part of the problem we are facing is that too many people see these issues as a ‘them’ issue. And it is true, many of us conveniently forget the state of affairs in our own country and then we form for ourselves and for our friends, a prejudiced, stereotypical view of the host country. At the end of the day children are children, no matter where they come from, what colour they are or anything else. If they are hurting, we need to step in and help them. Anything less is cowardly.
I wonder what in your mind constitutes a bias post? Do you want everyone to post that things are rosy in the garden because in other countries they have similar or worse problems?
Should we not be influenced in viewing this episode by what is going on in society around us? Isolated incident or a reflection of a wider spread problem? Youseek to stifle debate because maintaining " face" for you is more important than recognising a problem in order to start working on a solution. The powers that be tried this approach a decade or more ago and look where we are now.
Of course there are troubled schools in the UK, particularly in inner city areas, but then again there are many schools where trouble is very rare. You overlook this when to lump all schools together and forget how many alternative places of education a large nation has. The UK has over 25000 schools. How many does Cayman have? I raise this not as a criticism, but to illustrate how important it is for Cayman to get it right.
Trying to censor debate before it even starts won’t help anyone. Why not simply ask CNS to close down, then you wouldn’t have to put up with any comments not in agreement with your own.
RCIPS have not released anything official as yet. This is yet another good investigative story by CNS!
Keep up the good job CNS.
Why is she at WB Police Station? Surely JGHS is closer to the Central Police Station?
In any case, more evidence that the schools are violent. Something has to be done for the people from a young age.
It seems the RCIPS segregate persons being held in custody by sex. Men to George Town Police Station. Women to West Bay Police Station.
Aliens, bi-sexuals and others to Bodden Town please…
What are these young people thinking about or are they not thinking. Suppose she had killed the girl and injured the teacher more seriously. She would have to spend the rest of her life BEHIND BARS…….. What a shame such a young life would have be wasted.
Young people you are the FUTURE of these Islands please think before taking actions such as these.
Another detailed description from the RCIPS.
What was she stabbed with?
Were other children stabbed?
Did security subdue the girl and how?
I realize it only happened this morning, but some of that they should know already. But then again, well..need I say more.
This is a case involving a minor and probably still under investigation. Why do you think you are entitled to any more information than what is supplied.
I think you just like to bash the RCIPS!
It is called a civilized society. I beleive the poster was stating the obvious questions, nothing that was "private". Do you realize that your children were taking outside the school when this all happened (the entire school!). Did you know that? Then again, maybe you just don’t care to have information, the truth would be too obvious. Remember Margaritaville and the great description they gave. I beleive those guys are still runninng around. Again, maybe you would rather have the police not comment on anything though, it is better to not talk about it. This is part of the problem with the children, the parents are so ignorant that they can’t impart any common sense on their children….that is if the parents actually raised them and the nanny didn’t.
Did you mean to say that if the nanny raised them, they would have more sense than if the parents did? If so, thank you – sir/madam. I rest my case.
Oh come on……..you just cant please you ungrateful people!
Amazing how some people automatically attack the authority figures, losing sight of the tragedy that in this case is a baby violently attacking another baby.
Respectfully, your questions will not serve to prevent something like this from happening again. At this juncture let’s leave the intricate details to the RCIPS. Instead, ask how we as a community can bridge the obvious gap between the adults and youth, troubled and otherwise? How do we as a community police the negligent parents that rely on the Government to raise their children?… I want to go on, but my son needs help with his homework… Peace and guidance to you!
Only when parents start raising their children and stop defending them at all costs will anything happen. I congratulate you on raising yours.
Last time I checked babies don’t go to JGHS, 15, 16 & 17 years old are not babies!
What a load of irrelevant questions. I’m sure all in the repot was all that wa available at the time. You can assume no others were stabbed and you don’t need to know how she was subdued.
I agree with you. The other posters on here appear to be blinded by ignorance. God forbid that there is a school shooting and your child comes home from school, but you are unaware until you arrive home from work because the police don’t share information. Then again, Cayman has always not wanted to hear the truth about anything, would rather sweep it under the rugs. Remember there are no gay Caymanians! LOL