The pain of losing her 16-year-old son was just too much for Kashema Smith.

“Woi, Jesus, woi. A better him did stay with me,” she wailed at the house in Buckfield, St Ann, where the teen, Devonie, lived with his father Milton Shearer and stepmother Merlene Chambers.

The father, too, was a picture of grief as he and Smith sought comfort in each others’ arms. He agreed with Smith that their boy could still be alive had he remained in Hanover where he was living with her prior to moving to Ocho Rios last year.

Grief counsellors comforting the parents encouraged them not to blame themselves for what happened and pledged their continued support to the family.

Devonie was allegedly hit in the head with a chair, from behind, by another male student at Ocho Rios High School in St Ann on Wednesday. He was taken to hospital where he eventually succumbed to the injury.

The student said to be responsible is currently in police custody. He was reportedly taken to the cops by his mother.

It is alleged that Devonie and the other student had an altercation on Tuesday, which spilled over into Wednesday.

Devonie started attending Ocho Rios High School in September. Prior to that he studied at Green Island High School in Hanover.

Smith told the Jamaica Observer that her son’s father and his stepmother, apparently fearing for her health, only told her that he was in hospital after an incident at his school. She travelled to Ocho Rios from Hanover on Thursday, praying that all would be well.

“They didn’t want to tell me that he was dead because they didn’t want me to drop down in the country. They just told me he was in the hospital. I was praying that everything would be okay, but when I came it was already too late,” she said.

Shearer recalled how much his son loved school.

“He just wanted to do well so he could help his mother and sister. When he comes home in the evenings, the first thing he would say is ‘Daddy, mi gwaan good up at school today, enuh’. When it comes to his books, he loved that. Him love school bad,” the father said. “He just wanted to do well in life to help his mother and his sister.”

Stepmom Chambers was equalled crushed by the tragedy because she knew how badly he had wanted to move to Ocho Rios and had begun to settle and excel in school.

“For five years he had been asking me to have him transferred. He begged me last year to transfer him because when he came to Ocho Rios and saw the work that the children his age was doing, it was more advanced. He told me that when he gets his first job and start making money he would take his mother from the country,” Chambers told the Observer.

“When I was at the hospital I picked him up and told the doctors to give him to me because they were lying that he was dead. He was like my right hand. He was my feet. He did my banking business…everything was him,” she said.

“Last week he told me that he wanted to do trading online. He also expressed that he wanted to become an electrical engineer. All of that is now gone,” the stepmother said.

Minister of Education Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon visited the school on Thursday along with Member of Parliament for St Ann North Eastern Matthew Samuda. They also visited the teen’s family.

There was a sombre mood at the school on Thursday. Students received grief counselling in their classes from government agencies and the police were present offering support. The principal declined to comment.

The education minister said the incident was heartbreaking for the school community and the entire Jamaica.

“We ask all of Jamaica to pray for our children across the country. Our children are hurting. There is anger and we have to work really hard to get to the bottom of it to provide psychosocial support to these children and develop communities that can support these children. What we are seeing in our schools is what we are seeing in our communities and the behaviour from our communities. We have to stop it,” the minister said.

Samuda urged parents to act when children complain about things that happen at school.

“Parents, if your child comes home and tells you that something happened at school, go to the school, report it to the school and to the police,” he said.

Merlene Chambers, the stepmother of 16-year-old Devonie Shearer, talks about the death of the teen on Thursday.(Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Minister of Education Senator Dana Morris Dixon (second left) and Member of Parliament for St Ann North Eastern Matthew Samuda (left) during a visit on Thursday to Ocho Rios High School where a student was killed, allegedly by a schoolmate on Wednesday. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Sixteen-year-old Devonie Shearer.