SANTA Cruz, St Elizabeth – Family, friends and the Munro school community were still yesterday struggling to come to terms with the loss of 17-year-old sixth form student Amal Clarke.

Clarke died in a motor vehicle accident on the Barbary Hall Main Road in south west St Elizabeth on Sunday afternoon while returning to school from his home in Black River, following the Christmas break.

His 25-year-old brother, Makhail Clarke, who was driving the car which police said collided with a minivan at about 2:45 pm Sunday, was said to be in stable condition in hospital yesterday.

There were counselling sessions for students, not only at Munro where the youth was among the leaders of the student community, but also at the neighbouring Hampton School for Girls where he attended classes in a few Art subjects.

Munro’s principal, Branford Gayle, who said late Sunday that Clarke had been on the short-list of candidates to become the next head boy of the school, told the Observer that a local pastor had been among those who had visited the school to share and console.

‘It’s been difficult but the students are settling down and many, many people have been calling,” said Gayle.

Principal of Hampton, Heather Murray, said the students at Hampton with whom Clarke had shared classes were traumatised. Counselling sessions had been organised and a special devotion was held in his memory yesterday.

Hailed on Sunday by Gayle as “one of those who was going to make a difference in this country”, Clarke was being remembered yesterday as a responsible, socially conscious and caring person.

His older sister, Anya Clarke, told how her late brother was “mature beyond his years”, with a strong sense of responsibility.

“He was very caring to both young and old and very protective of women and the vulnerable,” she said.

Anya referred to an old lady who had been put up by the family during the passage of Tropical Storm Gustav in August. “He (Amal) was always looking out for her,” recalled Anya. “Even just recently he went to look for her to make sure she was alright.”

For Anya, Amal’s loss was even more painful because he had always reminded her so much of their father, attorney Michael Clarke who died in 2001. “He was like a smaller version of my daddy, sometimes when he laughed I would say to myself ‘that’s my daddy’,” she said.

Amal, who had secured nine CXCs, including six ones, last year, impressed Murray with his sense of social responsibility.

“He was one of those who helped to bridge the gap between Hampton and Munro,” she said. “He was a fine young man, extremely helpful with great potential.”

She recalled that for a fund-raising play at Hampton last year, Clarke sold more than 100 tickets to students at Munro.

Clarke’s death brought to four the number of people killed on St Elizabeth’s roads since the start of 2009. Three young men died in a car accident in Brompton square on New Year’s Day.