MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Those in the know, tell of a supreme irony, as they reflect on the stabbing death of 16-year-old Haig Williams at the Cross Keys High School in south Manchester last Tuesday.

The extraordinary thing, they say, is that despite the persistent stigma of indiscipline and violence, the school has been recording significant improvement in academic and related performance in recent years.

Even young Williams’ grieving mother, Lucrecia Dean, made that exact point as she explained her reluctance to pull her son from the school following a violent attack on him three months ago.

“I was thinking of moving him to another school, but then again, he had improved so much,” said Dean.

“My son moved from 49th in his class to fifth on the last report,” she told the Sunday Observer. That spectacular movement, she said, had occurred between “second form and third form”.

Another parent, a father, also told of his own concerns about his child’s improved academic performance at Cross Keys High being diluted by indiscipline.

“My daughter is doing very, very well but now after this latest incident, we may have to move her,” he said.

Married and the mother of four, Dean says she is now sorry that she allowed herself to be swayed by her son’s academic growth. She insists that Cross Keys High is “out of control where discipline is concerned” and needs to be “taken over” by the Ministry of Education.

“The principal (Ralph Nelson) can’t control it, the ministry must move in and do something about the school… they need to come and weed out the bad weed and find a place for bad weed,” said Dean, who is herself a past student of Cross Keys High. She was “speaking out” in order to help other parents avoid her grief and pain, she said.

She took issue with news reports suggesting that her son had come from a “troubled community”. There was nothing wrong with the New Green community (just outside Mandeville) in which she lives and her son had been growing up in a “peaceful, loving” home, she said.

The bottom line for her was that Cross Keys High “is not a safe place for kids”.

The Manchester police late Friday said they were yet to press charges against a teenager who had “confessed” to wielding the knife which took Haig Williams’ life. Investigations were continuing, the police said, in order to make their case as watertight as possible.

The tragedy at Cross Keys was the worst of several violent incidents over the last week on the grounds of so-called “upgraded” high schools. The following day, just over an hour’s drive away, at Balaclava High in North East St Elizabeth, another teenager was also stabbed, necessitating hospitalisation.

Her voice breaking at times, Dean told of how her son became enmeshed in a hostile relationship with other boys for reasons which remained unclear to her.

It came to a head on the 16th of March when Williams was taken off a bus in the “Rose Corner area” of south Manchester and beaten by a group of boys who accused him of “breaking” another boy’s arm. A report was made to the Cross Keys police, but as far as she was aware there had been no further developments.

“The police said they would get back to us, but nothing happened,” she said.

After that, said Dean, Haig confided to his older sister that he believed he was being followed by other boys.

Then, last Tuesday afternoon, while she was at work at a restaurant in Mandeville, the terrible news came that her son had been killed during the lunch break at school.

She can’t say for sure that the same boys who had assaulted her son in March were involved in the fatal attack, but is angry because of what she describes as authoritative reports that members of that group who were banned from school at the time because of misconduct, were subsequently allowed to return to the institution.

Dean told the Sunday Observer that news reports suggesting her son had been involved in a fight were untrue. Word reaching her, was that Williams was “called over” by a girl, and when he responded, a group of boys rushed him — one of whom stabbed him in the side and thigh.

Principal Nelson says Williams’ death came during a “melee” which was itself the result of an ongoing feud between groups of boys. His information, he told the Sunday Observer, was that two boys — one of them a friend of Williams — were “fighting and rolling” on the ground. Williams rushed to the scene and demanded, “Is wha a happen yah so?” at which point, he was stabbed.

Nelson confirms the incident in March, but says two of those who attacked Williams at that time were actually taken into custody by the police. They had not returned to school, he said.

Arguing that Dean’s criticism of him was largely influenced by her grief, Nelson said that Haig Williams had been part of a group of boys who were also “aggressive”.

The principal spoke of a ‘backs-to-the-wall’ effort by the school’s staff to transform the institution into one respected by the wider community for its academic and vocational achievements.

Schools such as Cross Keys High suffered, he said, because only the lowest achieving children from the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) exam — some of whom admittedly are “late bloomers” — are assigned. He revealed that annually, “an average 60 per cent” of GSAT students arriving at Cross Keys High are functionally illiterate.

It’s a statistic that is expected to change substantially starting with the new school year in September, because of rules implemented this year barring children who have not mastered the Grade Four Achievement Test from sitting GSAT.

While 43,000 children were registered to sit GSAT earlier this year, another 6,000 were deemed ineligible because of functional illiteracy.

Under new arrangements to begin in September, such students will be placed in the Alternative Secondary Transition Education Programme (ASTEP) — focusing on the development of basic literacy and numeracy skills for up to two years.

ASTEP is also meant to help students to develop self-esteem and engender positive thinking about self, family and community.

According to Nelson, the “sad thing” was that despite the handicap of having to cope with low achievers, “real progress” was being made at Cross Keys High when Tuesday’s tragedy struck.

A deliberate strategy was in place to develop innovative reading programmes and it had paid rich dividends. The institution of regular tests for all academic streams had helped to motivate study and healthy competition among students “because no one wants to fail”. A practice developed in recent years of rewarding high achievers with end-of-term trips to the beach and elsewhere, had aided motivation, he said.

Nelson spoke of the joy in the school community in 2009 when news came that three students had passed seven subjects at CXC level. That achievement was surpassed in 2010, when eight students passed eight subjects.

Speaking to the Sunday Observer by telephone, Nelson told of his pride on seeing students sitting under trees and studying, something, he claimed was virtually unheard of when he took over as principal five years ago.

The school’s mathematics programme had recently gained praise from the Ministry of Education. Its skills training programme, including electrical installation and furniture-making, had also gained acclaim. Over the last two years, he said, an e-learning programme — following the acquisition of 60 computers — has taken hold. The school has also made considerable strides in sport, particularly in table tennis and cricket, he said.

Journalist Glendon Baker who serves as vice-chairman of the school board underscored Nelson’s claims. “There can be no question that the school has made serious strides in terms of academic performance,” said Baker.

An emotional Nelson spoke of efforts by himself and his staff to provide “another chance” for students often considered irredeemable. In one case, he said, a young man had returned to him pleading for another opportunity “after being incarcerated on a rape charge”. That young man ended up passing five CXCs”, said Nelson.

In another case, he said, a student who had been abandoned by his family and was living in an old broken down building was “rescued” by staff and teachers. He too gained five CXC passes.

Yet, despite the successes, Nelson spoke despairingly of elements among the student body who defied control, openly disrespecting teachers and fellow students and bringing the school into disrepute. Such disruptive behaviour, he suggested, was directly linked to the pain and frustration felt by low achievers. Only recently, he said he had warned his staff to be on the lookout for disruption from those whose poor grades would not allow them to graduate or sit exams.

He lamented that while the Cross Keys police try their best to help, resource constraints posed a hindrance. The Jamaica Constabulary Force’s assigned school’s resource officer was often unavailable, he said.

He confirmed that since Tuesday’s tragedy, a police corporal had been assigned to the school. ‘We have had discussions about implementing a multifaceted approach to enforcing school rules,” said Nelson.

He is among those hopeful that a Ministry of Education project to place “troubled” students in special institutions will take the pressure off schools such as Cross Keys.

The first such facility is tentatively set for opening across the road from Munro College, at Potsdam in the hills of Malvern, St Elizabeth, come September.