MONTEGO BAY, St James — A male student from a prominent Montego Bay high school has been charged with Friday’s murder of a Green Pond High schoolboy.

It is alleged that the grade 11 student, who has been identified as 16-year-old Ryan Whyte of a Salt Spring, St James address, was fatally stabbed after he inflicted a stab wound to the accused schoolboy’s friend, who remained in hospital up to last night.

Reports from the police are that a fracas involving three students — who are reportedly from gritty, neighbouring inner-city communities — ensued in the vicinity of a popular fast-food venue in the resort city Friday evening.

Whyte was allegedly stabbed by the accused, after the Green Pond High student allegedly stabbed his friend. Whyte ran a short distance after which he reportedly collapsed and died.

Yesterday, when the Jamaica Observer visited Green Pond High, sections of the facility were in a state of mourning, especially those who were close to Whyte.

According to the institution’s guidance counsellor Shaun Daley, a trauma team was dispatched from the Ministry of Education to provide grief counselling for the traumatised students.

“As with most traumatic events, we have persons who are in grief. But thankfully, we have the assistance of the trauma team from the Ministry of Education; they have been on the ground since morning,” he said. “And since then we have strategically responded to the needs as they arise. It is not wholesale but we have persons who were close to the student who died and we have to respond accordingly.”

Meanwhile, the school’s principal, Elisea Ellis Spence, described Ryan as a promising student.

“Ryan Whyte was a boy with potential, just like every other boy, and we take special care of our boys because we know their potential and we want to see them do their best,” the principal remarked.

In fact, she said that the school, which is surrounded by a number of tough inner-city communities, has, “for this particular year, been making a special effort to zero in and connect with our boys”.

“Because all that is happening around us we have to be there for them. We have to understand, we have to rise to the occasion and so it is with a spirit of awe that we take on this responsibility, knowing the challenge that they face and they are not equipped to deal with it. But we know we have to be that support for them,” Ellis Spence said.