JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Thursday, July 17, 2025

Farewells for second murdered schoolboy

by

20160130

Arch­bish­op Joseph Har­ris yes­ter­day urged the peo­ple of Laven­tille to turn away from vi­o­lence. He said it would on­ly ex­ac­er­bate and deep­en the cir­cle of vi­o­lence. He al­so called on the Gov­ern­ment to take se­ri­ous­ly the re­form of the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem in this coun­try, in a bid to turn around the wors­en­ing crime sit­u­a­tion, not on­ly in Laven­tille but oth­er ar­eas of T&T.

The Arch­bish­op was speak­ing at the fu­ner­al ser­vice of mur­dered school­boy, De-Neil­son Smith, who was gunned down along with his friend, Mark Richards, while they were on their way home last week Thurs­day.

"Our re­sponse to this atroc­i­ty is that par­ents must be­gin to bring up chil­dren well. Hard work nev­er killed any­body. Send your chil­dren to school and en­sure that they go. De­mand that they do home­work, en­sure that they learn to do some­thing. They are all very gift­ed. Help them to dis­cov­er their gifts, which they can make a con­tri­bu­tion to so­ci­ety," Har­ris said.

There was a large turnout of mourn­ers at Smith's fu­ner­al. His school­mates were seen hug­ging each oth­er and cry­ing un­con­trol­lably. One boy was seen hold­ing on to the prin­ci­pal of Suc­cess Laven­tille Sec­ondary School, Hami­da Baksh. He was in­con­solable. Smith was de­scribed as a men­tor, cap­tain, friend, col­league and broth­er by some of the mem­bers of the school's crick­et team.

"When­ev­er we were go­ing wrong, De-Neil cor­rect­ed us. He would al­ways cheer us up. He will be missed tremen­dous­ly," a young school crick­eter said.

As Smith's cof­fin was be­ing car­ried down the steps of the Our La­dy of Laven­tille Fa­ti­ma Shrine, Smith's team­mates bid him farewell by form­ing a Guard of Ho­n­our.

Mil­i­tary pa­trols not enough

Har­ris had strong words for the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, say­ing that po­lice and army pa­trols were not enough.

He said they had to im­ple­ment pro­grammes that would in­stil dis­ci­pline among young men and women.

Arch­bish­op Har­ris asked whether the po­lice and army couldn't in­stead run scout troops and the cadet corps to teach dis­ci­pline, give a sense of self-worth and nur­ture the sense and in­cli­na­tion to do good that our young peo­ple have with­in them.

"Those in charge should take se­ri­ous­ly the need to pro­vide for dif­fer­ent learn­ing styles and at­ti­tudes be­cause we will con­tin­ue to pro­duce young men and women who are func­tion­al il­lit­er­ates and have noth­ing to do be­cause the sys­tem does not pre­pare them to make a con­tri­bu­tion to so­ci­ety," Har­ris said.

He added that he be­lieves that this deep­ens an in­fe­ri­or­i­ty com­plex.

"They would have noth­ing to show that they are men. They mis­take fear for re­spect so they car­ry guns half their size be­cause they be­lieve that car­ry­ing guns and fright­en­ing peo­ple makes them men," he added.

Har­ris said there was dire need to have lead­ers in Laven­tille who will be peace­mak­ers and help nur­ture and en­cour­age har­mo­ny to flow once more in Laven­tille, which was re­ferred to as the Holy Hill long ago be­cause of the Our La­dy of Laven­tille shrine that stands in the church's yard.

"Mary, moth­er of God, would have seen the un­just and the sense­less killing of De-Neil and Mark at the foot of the shrine of Our La­dy of Laven­tille.

"How Mary must have wept to see so many of her chil­dren die sense­less­ly in this place ded­i­cat­ed in her mem­o­ry," Har­ris said.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored