OCHO RIOS, St Ann – A Grade 11 student at the Marcus Garvey Technical High School has been admitted to the St Ann’s Bay Hospital in serious condition after he was stabbed by an intruder at the school yesterday morning. The intruder’s face was covered.

In an apparent retaliatory move, two other men invaded the property afterwards, searching for one of two boys said to be responsible for the attack. However, they were stoned by students.

Principal Leslie Riley said the incident left students and teachers traumatised and will force the school to take a closer look at its security.

The incident comes just two weeks after students at the school stoned the police and the principal, protesting against his return to the post after being on leave.

“It is just unfortunate that this incident has occurred; operations at the school were going very well,” Riley told the Observer yesterday.

Riley described the wounded boy as “a very well behaved student”.

According to a school spokesman, at around 8:30 am while a female teacher was conducting a Grade 11 science class in a room located at the southern section of the compound, detached from the main classroom blocks, two persons with their faces covered, one dressed in khaki, entered the classroom.

The youngster in the uniform pointed out the student to his crony who then attacked him and stabbed him several times, as other students fled the classroom screaming.

The attacker and his accomplice then left the property through a hole in a fence a few meters from the classroom.

The injured student was taken to hospital and was admitted in serious condition.

Reverend Roy Wickham, a member of the school board, told news reporters that a vice- principal of the school went to the hospital and later reported that the student was suffering from a punctured lung.

“Any breach of security would be of concern to any good management, so it is a cause for concern,” Rev Wickham said, in response to calls by students for improved security.

In the meantime, he said the school would be conducting a critical incidence stress debriefing for students and teachers at the institution.

Riley, in the meantime, said the incident had marred almost two weeks of harmonising which had started after the protest on May 1.