Ocho Rios High School continues to mourn the shooting death of a student, on Wednesday night, February 15.
Seventeen-year-old Ricardo Senior of Parry Town in St Ann has been described as a very pleasant, kind and helpful young man, who had ascended to a leadership role in the school where he served as a prefect.
Senior- who would celebrate his eighteenth birthday later this year- was paving a path towards success. According to police, his life was cut short by unknown assailants as he was on his way home with relatives after fixing a phone.
The killing has left a school now in deep mourning.
Senior’s grade 11 form teacher, Mikhail McKenzie in an interview with The Times last Friday, explained that Senior was a very kind student.
“He was very kind and helpful, especially to his classmates… There wasn’t a time I as a form teacher had to speak to him because of any violation… He was a perfect student,” Mr McKenzie explained.
Senior was in a competitive class of only boys according to Mr McKenzie. He said that Senior was a very hardworking boy, who had placed in the top ten out of 36 students in the last Academic term from September to December.
“He was a very hardworking student. He pursued Mathematics from he was in Grade 10 and it was a subject he was always failing from past grades, but he worked hard and was awarded with a grade two,” Mr McKenzie said.
He said that Ricardo Senior also was very good at electrical technology and from time to time would help his teacher of electrical technology around the school.
SADNESS
However, the death of the teen, who also served as a senior prefect has left the student and teacher population saddened.
“The entire class has been saddened… The teachers who have taught him are shaken up as well, because of the type of person he was…,” Mr McKenzie noted.
He said that counsellors from the Ministry of Education and neighbouring schools visited the school last Friday to provide support and counselling to the students. There was also assistance from police officers from the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) Community Safety and Security Branch (CSSB).
Mr McKenzie also indicated that the principal of the school, Marvin Clowson, along with the board chairman have also assisted with counselling as well and have spoken to the students at devotions.
LAST CONVERSATION
Mr Mckenzie reflected on his last conversation with Ricardo Senior last Wednesday, the same day he was shot.
Mr McKenzie explained that he was helping to prepare him for a mock job interview that would take place the following Wednesday. He noted that Senior was the type of student that was always preparing himself and he was expected to whatsapp him (Mr McKenzie) a photo of a shirt Wednesday evening to determine if it was appropriate for him to wear to the mock interview.
However, that whatsapp message never came and the young student, who was on a path for success met his end tragically.
Mr McKenzie said that Senior was talented at fixing phones and computers, and on the evening that he died, he was returning home with two other men from fixing a phone.
Those men have been later identified as Senior’s relatives according to family members.
He said that some media reports that suggested that Senior was a part of any attack on anyone was not true and that he and others were attacked according to reports from family members.
Other members of the Ocho Rios High School body are also attesting to the good qualities that Senior possessed and that he was attacked by gunmen.
