The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

CONFUSED and shaken Doris Johnson Senior High School teachers and students tried to come to grips with the murder of 16-year-old Adonai Wilson, who was yesterday remembered as a boy with “good prospects”.

Wilson, a senior, was stabbed during an argument with fellow students after school on Wednesday. He died in hospital a short time later.

A mother of a student who witnessed the tragedy told reporters yesterday that Wilson told friends he wanted everyone to hold their heads high at graduation next year and not end up in the obituary shortly before he was involved in the confrontation that ended his life.

“(My daughter) was walking in the back of him,” Maria Woodside said. “They were apparently going to Popeyes. You know, kids do and say things. She said he was saying ‘look here, I want all of us to go walk up with our heads up high graduating, be proud and I don’t want to see none of y’all names or face in the newspaper or the obituary.’ Little that he didn’t know, that sooner or later it would be his name and his face in the obituary.”

Many of the 12th grade students were tearful as they spent hours at the Grace Community Church yesterday for a special assembly. The emotional students praised God, heard scripture, and were consoled by grief counsellors from the Ministry of Education and pastors from the church.

Back at the high school, Ministry of Education officials, including Director of Education Lionel Sands, met and spoke with teachers, assuring them, he later told The Tribune, that they could have done nothing to prevent the tragedy.

The teachers were shocked, angry and confused, he said, with many telling him that Wilson was a mannerly young man with good prospects for the future.

“I spoke to teachers at school to get them to understand that it was not (their) fault,” he said. “It was encouraging for them to hear that. We knew they did their best.

“The mood was not one of joy but one of sadness simply because the school indicated he had good prospects. It happened that someone who everyone thought was going to be a success story was the victim; it’s obvious that would affect the teachers. When someone who is showing progress and this happens it wouldn’t give a good feeling. It’s something we couldn’t avoid; something out of our control because it happened away from the school.”

As for the alleged attacker, Mr Sands said he is still seeking information about the young man but suggested nothing in his past led officials to believe he was a danger to other students.

“I don’t get the sense from administrators that they knew something like this would happen,” he said. “We are still trying to find out the reasoning behind this. We are waiting for the investigation to be concluded but it seems senseless to everyone.”

Mr Sands said he hoped the students who witnessed the attack would realise that they should stay away from a life of violence.

“Those who witnessed what happened, if they have some human in them, they should say ‘this isn’t right, what is the takeaway? I shouldn’t get involved in this and also that life is sacred,’” he said. “This is someone whose life has been cut off and who has not been given the opportunity to extend his line and generation.”

For her part, Ms Woodside said her daughter was struggling to deal with the loss of a friend with whom she had grown up.

“They used to go to LW Young together and my daughter, she’s so fragile; very sweet, intelligent, but fragile. The only thing I could do is talk to her and pray, because prayer changes a lot of things. One family lose their son forever and the other side lose their son’s freedom. It’s very sad because whatever the matter was that happened between young people, it’s ridiculous and out there it’s a spiritual warfare so I hope it will be a wakeup call not just for a week or two weeks but for the rest of their life.”

Still, she said, she doesn’t fear for her daughter’s safety at Doris Johnson.

“Doris is a nice school. There’s no perfect school, no perfect parents, but like I said, just trust God.”