Michael McLean, Gleaner Writer

Lacovia, St. Elizabeth:

Students on the afternoon shift at the Santa Cruz Primary and Junior High School in St. Elizabeth are still in mourning following the death of a male student who was killed in a hit-and-run motor vehicle accident along the Holland Bamboo main road in the parish on Tuesday.

Ricardo Brooks, a 13-year-old student from Holland Village, about two miles from Lacovia, was killed about 6:30 p.m. by a grey Toyota Corolla motor car which did not stop.

His teacher, Amellio Holt, who was like a mother to the deceased, was still grieving and could hardly express her feelings when The Gleaner visited the school on Wednesday.

Very loving

"Ricardo was a student who was very loving, as a matter of fact, every where I am he came seeking me out," said his form teacher Mrs. Holt. "He was really, really loving and right now I don't even know, words can not express it, but I am feeling really sad."

The teacher said it was just the very day before his death that the deceased told her he wanted to go home and eat his ackee and saltfish.

"It's very sad and I know the students are going to miss him," she said.

According to the teacher, Ricardo was quiet, loved to dance, and was always playing drums on the desk.

When The Gleaner visited his class, '7T' most of the 36 boys and girls with whom Ricardo shared the class, had sad expressions across their faces.

Fabian Thomas, classmate and good friend, said they had been friends since October of this year and played football together.

"When I heard the news that Ricardo died, I did not believe it," he said.

Guidance counsellor Maureen Smith said there was already a support group which had come to do counselling with the students.

"This is the general position the school takes whenever something like this happens," she said.