News

Fifth former's trial starts next week

TWO OF THREE students of Holy Trinity High School who are accused of causing more than $230,000 worth of damage to the school's property are to face trial come next week Tuesday, June 29, 2003. The students, fifth formers, rioted, reports said, when told they were not going to graduate,

The mother of one student, who had initially pleaded guilty to malicious destruction of property, made $50,000 restitution when her son appeared before the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday. She has another $29,500 outstanding. The other two, who still claim innocence, will stand trial next week.

Reports from the Half-Way Tree police said that after a fifth-form assembly on Tuesday, May 18, at about 11 a.m., the three male students went on a vengeful campaign to destroy the school to get back at the administration for not allowing them to graduate. They were even said to have slashed the tyres of a teacher's car.

The student who pleaded guilty insisted yesterday that his only act of violence was removing a drawer and smashing a fluorescent light bulb. Police reports said that they ripped through 40 combination school chairs, totaled two desks, a bookshelf and demolished several pieces of furniture and fixtures in all four Grade 11 classrooms.

Resident Magistrate Martin Gayle, having read the social enquiry report found that the student who pleaded guilty to be remorseful. However, he said that the student needed to buckle down and stay away from bad company. He read that the student's average grade had plunged to 40 per cent toward the end of his high school career. "If you need to move up in life, you will need an education," RM Gayle counseled.

RM Gayle said he was not trying to embarrass the student when he told the court of his academic situation, which made him ineligible to march with fellow classmates on graduation day come next Thursday, July 1.

Peter Champagne, the attorney representing the boys, requested time to read the statements and prepare a proper case. RM Gayle complied, setting a date before graduation to facilitate witnesses.