Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

Dr Orville Taylor, senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies, provides words of encouragement to students at Holmwood Technical High School in Manchester yesterday. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Six grade-eleven students at the Holmwood Technical High School in Manchester missed their Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate social studies examination on Wednesday because they were injured in a motor vehicle crash, which claimed the life of one of their schoolmates.

Shaneka Clarke was killed and 13 others injured when the minibus in which they were travelling collided with a truck on the New Green main road, Mandeville.

Determined

But so determined was Melissa Williams, who was also on the bus when it crashed, that she took a taxi and headed for school where she sat the 9 a.m. examination.

The acting vice-principal of Holmwood Technical High, Jean James, said Williams was so traumatised, she cried and trembled while she was writing the paper.

She noted that the examiners had to delay the examination to allow students to refocus because they were unable to properly concentrate after hearing the devastating news.

Pearline Sharpe, guidance counsellor at the school, said Williams' mother heard about the crash and went to the institution in search of her child but was told that the student had already started the examination.

The mother waited until the examination was over and took her daughter to the hospital for medical checks.

Sharpe said Williams had bruises on her arm and her leg.

When The Gleaner news team visited Holmwood Technical High School yesterday, students were leaving the auditorium after devotion.

The sombre look on their faces as they made their solemn strides to their classes was evidence that the school was in mourning.

Conlife Green, form teacher for Shaneka Clarke, said more than 40 per cent of his students were absent yesterday. He described Clarke as a jovial student.

A counselling session was held for Clarke's classmates and those of Demar Young. Young has been hospitalised in serious condition in the intensive care unit of the Kingston Public Hospital.

Young and another student were airlifted to the hospital Wednesday night.

'I am lucky'

Petra Fanty, who was also in the collision, came out with only minor bruises. "I am lucky," she said.

Fanty is also a member of the Holmwood track club.

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com