A student is now in hospital nursing wounds after he was stabbed by another teenager at Penwood High school in Olympic Gardens yesterday.

Austin Burrell, principal of the school said this was the first time that an incident of this nature has occurred at the school since the start of the school year. He said representatives from the Ministry of Education visited the school and have offered counselling to the affected students. He also said he spoke with the student population and things are back to normal.

Burrell said he understands that the one of the students, who are both in fifth form, was walking along the corridor when the other walked up to him and stabbed him.

The Olympic Gardens police, who were called to the school, took the injured teenager to hospital and have launched an investigation into the matter. The incident occurred about 10:30 a.m. just before break time.

Reprisal attack

However, Burrell said information he is receiving suggests the stabbing may have been a reprisal for an attack on the accused student about a week ago.

He said it is being alleged that the victim and his friends attacked the accused in downtown Kingston.

He added that the students were not arguing before the incident and had showed no signs of any conflict prior to the stabbing. He added that the school had been making a lot of effort to ensure that it creates a partnership with parents to prevent incidents of violence at the school.

One of the initiatives the school has been using is to establish a partnership between itself and parents to get students more focused on their academics rather than violence. He said the initiative has been working as there have been no violent incidents of this nature at the school since the start of the school year.

In the meantime, Burrell said the parents of both students will meet with the disciplinary committee to determine the next course of action in the matter.