A staff member at the Kingston Technical High School believes that if female students were mandated to pass through a metal detector at the entrance to the school's compound, the fatal attack on 17-year-old student Michion Campbell could have been avoided.
"A metal detector deh here but a di boys dem get it, enuh. Di girls dem just get pat down all the time, but to be honest dem can sneak in knives and other tings in dem shoes and socks because dem skill. Dem carry vape in the school when dem ready. Mi honestly feel like sey if dem use di detector on every child weh enter di premises, di little girl wouldn't dead. It burn mi, enuh, fi see she lay down on di grung with her eye dem a turn over," the worker said.
Campbell, a grade 11 student of Nine Miles in Bull Bay, St Andrew, was stabbed several times by another girl just hours after she completed an exam. According to a report from the police's Corporate Communications Unit, at 2:30 p.m. Campbell and a schoolmate got into a heated argument that became physical. Both girls received stab wounds and Campbell was pronounced dead upon arrival at the Kingston Public Hospital. The other girl was treated for minor injuries and is in police custody.
A visibly shaken student said she watched in horror as Campbell was repeatedly stabbed before collapsing.
"Her eyes were rolling over, is the first I ever saw something like this. The girl was stabbing her like she didn't know what she was doing. She was just stabbing her. I felt like it was me getting stabbed. Children were screaming and fainting. One of them had an asthma attack," the student said.
An amateur video of the incident shows Campbell walking in the direction of the accused who caught her around the neck and stabbed her before she was pulled away by other students. Another video captured a non-responsive Campbell surrounded by frightened students who were trying to assist.
Another staff member stated that Campbell's life may have been saved had it not taken several minutes for her to be transported to hospital.
"A lot of times children are fighting and need medical assistance and they would not render assistance immediately. They would wait on the dean of discipline as with this case. Probably she would have lived, enuh, if they had just taken her up sooner," he said.
A frightened mother who heard of the stabbing said she rushed to the institution and frantically asked one of the security guards if her child was the victim. She said like other institutions, bullying remains at the top of the school's list of concerns.
"See mi daughter bag tear there, is one of the students tear it. Every day dem bully mi daughter said she slim and mawga. Dem take set on her and I have been coming here for a while on this issue and it still not resolved. When I hear the news today I thought it was her because I know she is being bullied. I really feel it for the parents of the little girl that was killed," she said.
