Exactly one week after a 16-year-old student was knifed to death by a schoolmate on a school compound in East Kingston, a 17-year-old male student of Penwood High School in St Andrew was yesterday hospitalised in critical condition after he was stabbed by a fellow 11th grader on the school grounds.

The student accused of the stabbing is now at large after he scaled a wall and fled, despite the efforts of school security to nab him. Police have since launched a manhunt for him.

Track and field coach for Penwood High, Rohan Fearon, said the boys were involved in a long-running dispute which ended with the teenager being stabbed three times, in the left side of his chest, arm and back.

“He bled a lot and was lifted by students and taken to hospital by a teacher,” Fearon told the Observer.

Students and teachers told the Observer that the boys were gambling poker when the fight started.

“They were playing sinker during class time,” one female student said. “The boy that was stabbed ran out of a classroom well bloodied. He almost collapsed and was assisted by female students and teachers.”

A male teacher who asked not to be identified said the student who is accused of stabbing his fellow pupil had been transferred from another school in East Kingston and had a history of violent conduct, similar to the male student of Dunoon Technical High School who is in police custody for the murder of 16-year-old Shevon Johnson, who was stabbed at school last Monday.

“When students get transferred they should be checked out thoroughly,” said the distraught teacher. “Most of these children have no manners or respect for adults, even the girls. The society is in serious trouble if these are the persons expected to take over the reins of the country in years to come.”

The school is situated in a community known as ‘Compound’, which lies in the heart of the West Central St Andrew constituency of Education Minister Andrew Holness.

Last week, in the aftermath of Johnson’s death, Holness instructed teachers to report to the police, students who commit violent acts and who are in possession of offensive weapons.

Yesterday, it seemed like business as usual at Penwood High as some students were seen milling around the school compound, seemingly unaware that a fellow student was battling for life in hospital.

After a bell sounded signalling the end of classes, young men in plain clothes with bleached out faces and wearing extra tight jeans entered the school and milled about unmolested.

“See the man dem a come yah,” one student said as she filed out of the school.

Perched on a wall just outside the school gate, a teenager was seen crushing what appeared to be marijuana in his left hand before transferring the contents into a rolling paper.

The young boy then rolled a ‘spliff’ and lit up in full view of the students who were making their way home from school.