MANDEVILLE, Manchester — A 16-year-old May Day High School student was hospitalised last Friday afternoon after he was allegedly attacked by students from three high schools in this south-central parish.

Reports say the attack stemmed from an earlier verbal altercation at his school.

Principal of May Day High Stanford Davis told the Jamaica Observer on Monday that he had actually made an effort to quell tensions between the injured teenager and other students at the school last Friday.

“After my intervention [they] shook hands and left. One of them, based on the information that I am getting, he actually waited in Mandeville to attack them [other students],” he said.

A relative of the injured student told the Observer that the teenager was on his way to a taxi stand at Willow Gate shortly after 4:00 pm when a group of boys from May Day High School as well as two other schools attacked him.

“They came at him in a menacing manner. Some had pieces of wood, some had knives, and he tried to defend himself. One of them swung something at him and he managed to miss it. He picked up a stone and threw it, hitting one [of the students]… He stumbled and was hit in the head with a stone,” the relative said.

He said taxi operators had to intervene to save the teenager and transport him to hospital, where he was treated and released on Saturday.

“He had to do a CT scan and there is an indentation in his skull… We are trying to organise for him to see a neurologist,” the relative said.

Reports suggest that the group of boys then went in search of two other students at the intersection of Caledonia and Manchester roads. Passers-by reportedly thwarted another violent incident.

Davis said the police questioned the students.

“All of those boys went to the police station already and met with the police,” Davis said.

He suggested that it was his understanding that the police intended to lay charges.

Efforts to get a comment from the Manchester police on the matter were unsuccessful on Monday.

Davis said educators have had to be shifting their focus from teaching and learning to dispute resolution among students.

“We have our hands full. As a matter of fact, we spend so much time doing that instead of doing what we are really supposed to do,” he said.

Just last Wednesday Minister of Education Fayval Williams said that the country is facing an epidemic of violence among children.

“And that’s just a hard, cold truth,” declared Williams as she addressed a post-Cabinet media briefing at Jamaica House.