RELATIVES of Arianna Barnett say they are still in shock, two weeks after the 13-year-old St Jago High School student died in hospital after collapsing on the school compound while training for sports day.

The incident occurred on February 17, and Barnett’s sister, who requested anonymity, claimed on Thursday that the family has been suffering and would like assistance with grief counselling.

“We haven’t heard anything from the Ministry of Education and I am sure that the school reports to them. The students and teachers have been receiving grief counselling and I am sure that the family would benefit from some of that,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

Insisting that her sister did not have any medical conditions, Barnett’s elder sibling said the family is still to get a report from the school explaining what transpired on the day.

Calls by the Jamaica Observer to the school to get comments on the matter went unanswered on Thursday.

However, a representative of the Ministry of Education said the ministry has been providing grief counselling for students and staff of St Jago and was looking to see how it could be extended to the family.

To be fair to the school, the source at the ministry said, the institution has tried to get in touch with the family, but with no success. An Observer source said after Barnett’s death, St Jago circulated a note electronically to parents, guardians and students expressing regret and sadness at her passing and described her as vibrant and promising.

According to the sister, the teen “had no medical conditions. We were just advised that she was practising for upcoming sports day and she collapsed and died. The family is still in shock. It was such a sudden death”.

She remembers Barnett as a young woman who sought to walk the way of Christ.

“She was a Christian. She was an active member of the Pathfinders. She was quiet, hardly spoke. She did not play sports for the school but she loved athletics.”