CHILDREN from four Kingston primary schools who witnessed last week’s slaying of the assistant coach/security guard of the Chetolah Park Primary have started to receive counselling. Officials of the Ministry of National Security’s Victim Support Unit have already visited the Chetolah Park school where the coach/guard, Derrick Lewis worked.

Lewis, 36, was killed during a primary school football match at a playing field behind the Tinson Pen aerodrome last Thursday.

Police have since reported that the man suspected of murdering Lewis was shot and killed during a gun-battle in East Kingston over the weekend.

Lewis’ 10-year-old son and his younger sister, both students of Chetolah Park, were among shaken students from the schools who received counselling from members of the Victim Support Unit, guidance counsellors and the police.

Yesterday, Ian Andrews, director of the Institute of Sports, visited St Jude’s Primary, whose team was playing a match at the time of the murder, in a bid to reassure the traumatised students that his organisation was aware of their suffering.

Members of the St Jude’s team were preparing yesterday to play another match on their fixture at the Breezy Castle playing field, but although days had passed the boys seemed troubled by the incident and some expressed the wish to stop playing the sport.

In the meantime, Andrews said the government was taking steps to ensure tighter security at primary school matches.

“We are looking seriously at the venues we use to host these games,” Andrews told the Observer yesterday. “Sports is an important developmental tool and we can’t afford to let the young ones get turned off because of this incident.”

Officials of St Jude’s said the day following the murder of the coach two thirds of the students did not turn up for classes.

“It shook them up badly. Some of the students could not sleep, others wouldn’t talk, but we are trying and they are slowly healing,” principal Aldith McDaniel Jones said.

The coach of the St Jude’s football team barely escaped with his life when the gunman chased him after shooting Lewis. Also, a student hurt an ankle when she jumped from the stands in a bid to save herself.

St Jude’s has itself had to deal with issues of violence as two parents and a vendor who conducted business at the school gate have been killed in recent times.

Meanwhile, staff at the St Francis and Rousseau Primary schools, whose teams are participating in the football competition, have also been working to rebuild the confidence of their students.

walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com