BLOOD flowed yesterday at Dunoon Technical High School after a schoolboy was chased and stabbed by another student with whom he had a dispute over a cellular phone, ironically, just minutes before the students were to attend a class on conflict resolution.

Sixteen-year-old Shevon Johnson was attacked and killed on the corridors of the Kingston school’s 10th grade block in full view of dozens of shocked students who were left inconsolable.

Students said the dispute was over a Nokia cellular phone which Johnson had found.

“The boy wicked you see. Shevon run from him and him run him down and stab him. The knife hitch up inna Shevon and him (attacker) use him foot and kick him (Shevon) offa the knife before him stab him two more time. The last time him twist the knife inna Shevon,” a shaken female friend of the dead boy told the Observer.

She said the teen attacker then tried to flee, but was held by a school resource officer who handed him over to the police.

The deadly attack occurred as the students waited for a class that was to be taught by former gang member Orlando Hamilton, who now works as a volunteer with the Peace Management Initiative. Hamilton, who lectures students on conflict resolution, was just about to start his class when he saw Shevon bleeding heavily from his wounds.

“I had to rush him to hospital in my car but he died about five minutes after we reached,” Hamilton told the Observer.

Shevon lived at Southborough in Portmore, St Catherine, while his attacker is said to reside at Constitution Hill in St Andrew. Students told the Observer that the boys were also involved in a long-running dispute over a girl and had squared off last Friday.

“The policeman part them and break up the scuffle and it spill over into today. It was a terrible thing to witness,” a male student said.

Yesterday, as students wept, school staff held a prayer vigil and gave motivational speeches in the auditorium. The 10th grade students who witnessed the murder were also counselled by grief counsellors and officers from the Ministry of Education.

A police source said the student accused of Shevon’s murder was involved in another violent incident at another high school some months ago and was brought before the court. The teenager was said be under a court-imposed probation order.

The Community Safety and Security branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force recently placed two school resource officers at Dunoon Technical and they have conducted several searches which have yielded several offensive weapons, drugs and other illegal items.

“I have raided that class several times. Last Thursday I raided the class and got several weapons. I was just about to launch another raid when the incident happened,” a distraught school resource officer, who asked not to be named, told the Observer.

STABBED, BEATEN AT SCHOOL

Feb 2008

On Valentine’s Day, a 10th grade student at Kingston College was beaten unconscious with a steel pipe by schoolmates who attempted to steal his cellular telephone.

March 2008

Omar Lushane-Wright, a 17-year-old student of Bellefield High School was knifed by a 15-year-old from Beaumont Comprehensive High on March 5. Police said that Wright was stabbed when he got into a fight with the Beaumont student.

March 2008

Tivan Sewell, a Grade 10 student of Brown’s Town High School, was stabbed to death on March 4. The 16-year-old was among a group playing football at a field in St Ann’s Bay when a dispute developed. One of the boys left and returned with a knife which he allegedly used to stab Tivan.

Sept 2007

Percival Crew, a 14-year-old student of Albion Primary and Junior High in St James, was stabbed to death on September 26 by a thief who wanted his cell phone.