Emotional farewell for little Levonna at Hydel
MORNING devotions at the Hydel Group of Schools were markedly different yesterday morning as staff and students gathered with the family, friends and well wishers of slain six-year old, Levonna Gordon, in a special memorial service on the school grounds.
Levonna, who was a student of Hydel, was shot dead as she slept in her father’s car as he drove along the Hartlands main road in St Catherine last Thursday. Levonna received several bullets to her chest and died instantly, while her father escaped with only minor injuries in an attack by gunmen.
Levonna was remembered as a pleasant, courteous, disciplined and very hard working student.
Some were moved to tears as students of Grade 2 lit candles and placed them at the foot of a life sized picture of the slain six year-old. Today her name still sits on her class honour roll, with two final averages of more than 90 per cent.
Political Ombudsman Bishop Herro Blair, in his address at the service, urged members of the audience to seek improvements in the way the nation’s children and members of the security forces were treated in the wider society.
“I want you to help me to start a revolution in Hydel this morning. You will never sit back and watch our children be murdered or our security forces be taken out one by one. We have to stop dissing our police officers, we have to stop dissing our soldiers,” said Blair.
Similar sentiments were expressed by Dr Lyndon Johnson, who was the guest speaker at the memorial service.
In the meantime, the slain child’s mother said she was leaving her daughter’s killers to the Lord.
“They have defeated the body of Levonna but not the spirit, because I know she’s right here with me. She’s right here with me right now. She never leaves me alone, she’s right here. They have defeated their own selves, not us,” an emotional Trisha Gordon told the Observer following yesterday’s service.
“I know they know us, I know they are out there rejoicing but there’s one thing I have to say to them, I’m leaving it in the hands of the Lord. If they don’t turn the guns on each other, then the Lord will deal with them. I know the Lord is going to deal with them one by one,” she said.
