BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force has confirmed that it is aware of a video, which has made its way onto social media depicting a high school student being assaulted and beaten by a male.
The police have also indicated that they are making investigations into the contents.
The incident is said to have taken place within the last two days in the vicinity of the Washington Archibald High School (WAHS) compound.
The video shows what first appeared as a harmless exchange between a female student of the WAHS and a male (who is in plain clothes). He is seen taking a firm hold of one of the girl’s hands, while another female student in their company clearly exhibited displeased over his actions.
The young man then focuses his attention on the other student and proceeds to remove her glasses from her face. And while making an attempt to snatch the glasses from him, he throws them on the ground.
The young girl makes an attempt to leave the confrontation but the male pulls her back by the hand and slaps her across the face.
Press and Public Relations Officer Inspector Lyndon David told SKNVibes that the Police Force was made aware of the video and has already begun making its investigations, and that the appropriate action would be taken.
“The police are aware of it and we are currently investigating the matter. And based on our investigations, the appropriate action would be taken. The investigation process is ongoing and, once that is done, certainly we would let the public know the results.”
While he expressed his preference that these matters be brought directly to the police rather than having them plastered over social media, Inspector David said he is pleased that some light is being brought to the fact that these real and alarming occurrences need to be exposed.
“We would prefer if they come to us directly. We are aware that people are concerned and this shows that these things are happing in the presence of others. And sometimes people put them on social media because they are afraid to come forward and they feel this is the best way to assist. It is their way of shedding some light on these incidents.
“The Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force is totally against violence against anyone. And when we look at this video and see what appeared to be an adult and a minor and there appears to be, from the video, no reason for that reaction, we are totally against that and we are hoping that during our investigations we would have total cooperation from the victims in this matter and their parents…”
Inspector David solicited the public’s assistance in bringing these incidents to the police’s attention and also in assisting them with their investigations.
On Facebook, in particular, several individuals have commented on the video decrying the incident and calling for an investigation to be launched. SKNVibes observed that one individual even tapped the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force through its Facebook page to the particular post.
Over the past couple of months, several videos had emerged involving uniformed school children from both St. Kitts and Nevis depicting student on student violence. SKNVibes understands that the Ministries of Education on both islands and also the authorities have gotten involved.
