PETERSFIELD, Westmoreland

Former seventh grader Christopher Levi Suckra who was brutally slain in the parish just over a week ago, will be posthumously honoured for punctuality and deportment today at the Petersfield High School prize-giving awards ceremony.

” Christopher will be awarded for his punctuality and attendance which was 100 percent up to the time of his death,” principal of the Petersfield High School, Eugene Spence told the Observer West yesterday.

According to Spence the school last year established a merit and demerit awards system which rewards students for perfect attendance, perfect punctuality, academic performance of over 75 per cent averages, neatness of attire and class participation among other factors.

“.As a means of encouraging them,” Spence explained.

The 11-year-old boy- whose naked, mutilated body was found in a canefield in Banbury, near his Blue Castle home on November 13 – was on Monday remembered as a student who left an indelible mark on his school and community at the thanksgiving service for his life at the Torrington Wesleyan Holiness Church in Westmoreland.

He was later laid to rest at the family plot in Parotee, St Elizabeth.

Subsequently, post mortem reports revealed that Suckra was killed as a result of a blow to his head by a blunt instrument. The report also dispelled speculation that he was sexually molested.

The young student usually rode his bicycle for part of the journey to school before taking a cab. He did the same on his way back home. His death raised the number of children murdered this year to 64.

In the meantime, the Petersfield High principal revealed that the school has still not overcome the trauma associated with Christopher’s ghastly death.

“The school is gradually getting over it day by day, but just this morning I spoke to a fifth former who was his friend who is still affected,” she noted.

She saod Christopher’s best friend Briston Brown was still traumatised.

Brown, who had undergone treatment for trauma-related illnesses since his friend’s demise, returned to school on Monday, but was still totally devastated by the memory of his friend whose picture was posted in the classroom.

” He didn’t want to see any picture of Christopher. The teacher had to take it down as he did not want to see it. We still have to be counselling, encouraging and motivating,” said Spence.