WESTERN BUREAU — The St James High School Board yesterday put new security measures in place after a stabbing incident at the school left one student dead and another on murder charge.

The dead student is Fabian Gordon, 17, while his 16 year-old classmate is to face the court next Wednesday to answer a murder charge.

“Effective immediately every bag coming through the school gates will be searched by the security and we are going to employ more security guards to patrol the premises,” board chairman, Lee Bailey, told reporters shortly after the incident.

In addition, he said, there would be random searches of students during the days and improved surveillance on the school compound.

The stabbing incident reportedly stemmed from an argument between two boys. It was reported that at about 8:53 am while students were on their way from devotion to their respective classes an argument developed between Gordon and his 16 year-old colleague. Another student, who is said to be a friend of the other student originally involved in the dispute with Gordon, reportedly intervened. He is said to have pulled a knife from his bag and stabbed Gordon in the left breast.

The 17 year-old youth was taken to the Cornwall Regional Hospital where he died while undergoing treatment.

The St James High School, formerly called Montego Bay Secondary School, with a student population of 2,400, has had a history of violence. Just over five years ago another of its students was fatally stabbed on the school compound and there have been several reported cases of students injuring each other.

But according to Bailey, who was appointed board chairman nearly three years ago, there has been a vast improvement in discipline and academics at the institution in recent years. He noted that over the past two and a half years there has been only one reported case of violence at the school.

“We (the Board) have been doing our best. I am one chairman that was prepared to be fired than to lose a life at the school and so we put in place a number of measures to curb violence at the school,” he said.

These measures included the erection of a $1.5-million perimeter fence around the school, the expulsion of students found with weapons and the hiring of security guards. But those were obviously not enough to prevent yesterday’s incident.

Bailey said the board would soon meet to look at the existing security at the school and to implement additional measures to protect the life and property of the students.

The school board’s knee-jerk reaction yesterday has become a familiar refrain as schools across the island struggle to cope with violent outbreaks. Yesterday’s stabbing is just another in the list of similar occurrences.

Ten male students between the ages of 14 and 17 were recently suspended from the Frome Technical High School in Westmoreland after they were implicated in two consecutive days of violence that left the school population cowering in fear.

On May 20, a male student of Clan Carthy High School in Kingston was slapped with wounding charges after he allegedly stabbed a teacher and bit him on his lip. And a week before that a security guard was allegedly stabbed 13 times by a group of teenaged boys from Calabar High School.