The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

GRIEF-STRICKEN educators at Albury Sayle Primary School yesterday mourned not only the tragic killing of third-grader Eugene Woodside, but crime’s relentless attack on the hopes of inner-city youth.

When The Tribune visited the school, Eugene’s desk was decorated with a stuffed animal and handwritten letters from his former classmates, many of whom did not seem to fully understand the situation.

Officials said the eight-year-old left school on Monday holding an ice cream cone, and, with a friend, headed to a nearby takeaway to meet his grandmother.

Eugene was shot by a stray bullet on Monday as a gunman chased his intended target, running between houses in the Rosebud Street area firing several shots. One of those shots penetrated the wooden sheet rock structure of Eugene’s home, striking the youth as his sister helped him with his homework inside.The news of his last moments have magnified the pain felt by educators at Albury Sayle, according to school principal Katherine Rose, who said the affectionate, well-behaved student was doing exactly what he should have been when tragedy struck.

“He was in the right place,” Ms Rose said. “He was doing his homework. He was well behaved, very affectionate. His grade three teacher is broken, very broken this morning.”

Eugene’s teacher Telietha Strachan, an educator for nine years, said she would not wish this experience on any other teacher as she looked out at her bustling classroom.

“He was an active participant in class,” she said.

“I would always be able to call on him to answer a question. So I know now when I teach I’m going to miss his input.

“This is something that I don’t wish on any other teacher, my words will only permit me to express to a certain extent what that is. This is something if you don’t have to experience it, you would not be missing out.”

Five additional school counsellors were deployed to Albury Sayle Primary School to assist with grief counselling yesterday, according to a Ministry of Education press statement.

Psychological services are also being offered for those students in need, it stated.

“We need to continue with the counsellors,” Ms Rose said.

“Some of the kids understand, because one little boy said ‘Ms Rose that was my best friend, and I walked him to Bamboo Shack where he had to wait for his grammy.’”

As they grapple with their grief, the educators lamented the crime situation and its affect on impressionable minds.

“This is where they live and unfortunately they can’t do anything better,” said Ms Rose.

“If it was possible to move to another area, but to even think about it like that, there is crime wherever you go.

“It needs to be a total change of the mindset and until that happens it’s dangerous. When we grew up, we had a concern for the future, we looked for tomorrow, but these young people are saying everybody has to die so we can’t live forever.

“They have no hope,” Ms Rose added.

For her part, Ms Strachan criticised the inadequacy of the government’s anti-crime strategies, telling The Tribune that policymakers were failing the children of the country, particularly in New Providence.

“Safety in this country is an issue, particularly here in the capital,” she said, “it’s an issue.

“These are the things that policymakers need to take into consideration, it’s insufficient for them to say that it’s an unfortunate event.

She continued: “What are they doing? What measures are being put in place to turn this society around. I think they are doing wrong by the children of the country.”

Senseless violence

The pain shared among educators was echoed by Fort Charlotte MP Mark Humes, who also visited the school.

He told The Tribune he had been assisting Dennis Moss, the man police believe was the shooter’s intended victim, who was killed as he ran from the bullets that terrorized Eugene’s street and took the eight-year-old’s life.

Mr Humes said he also knew the victim of last week’s shooting death, Shannondoah Greene, and helped him with job hunting.

He said: “It’s just troubling for me to watch our young men just kill themselves, for whatever reasons they’re doing it. It just seems so pointless, so senseless.

“Both of the young men, with Dennis he was always talking about needing a job. We were trying to get their stuff together. I’d just taken Shannondoah’s stuff to a few businesses asking them to look out for him.”

Mr Humes said: “You have to ask what it is that these young guys want out of life, if they want anything out of life, and how serious they are about going after it.

“And then you wonder how serious we are at protecting these young lives, and ensuring that they have the necessary things that would keep them from delinquency.”

Reflecting on his heart-wrenching time with Eugene’s classmates, Mr Humes, a former lecturer at the University of the Bahamas, stressed the need for constructive opportunities for idle youth.

“The thing that killed me is these are third graders,” he said, “and as one child was talking to me there was another young guy on the side of him holding his hand. When he was done that young guy said could we pray?

“And I said you wanna pray, he said yes, and he prayed. This is a little eight-year-old boy, and I’m saying where do we lose this? Where do we lose this thing here?”

Mr Humes continued: “It’s not until they reach middle school, what is it that we’re not doing for the middle to high school students to keep them engaged? They’re engaged when they’re young.”