JOHNSON
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE DROWNING of Krisneive Reid, an 11-year-old Siloah Primary School student in St. Elizabeth, last Friday has taught a bitter lesson to his four friends and classmates, who witnessed the tragic result of a dare.
For years, the students of the school have been warned that the Black River, which flows in close proximity to their school, was out of bounds and that severe punishment would be meted out to any student caught venturing in its vicinity.
However, instead of making their usual passage home after school ended, Krisneive and his friends decided to take another path, a path that led them to follow through on a dare that cost Krisneive his life.
SECRET PACT
In the face of tragedy, the remaining friends made a secret pact on the river bank, never to reveal what happened for fear of being punished. However, two of his friends recount what happened that day.
"[One friend] said that we must go to the river to look and then him say that somebody must go into the river. Nobody wanted to go in and then him say that him don't come to river wid idiot pickney." one told The Gleaner on Tuesday.
"Krisneive said that him was not an idiot and that him will go in."
According to the friend, "he said he wanted to go to the river to look and come back. Then him take off him clothes and jump in".
JUMPED IN RIVER
"First him run and stop and said him don't have enough speed and then him go a little further and run and jump in the river. After that when he go down him take in water and he went under about three times," the boy stated.
Roy Dawkins, a resident, said he saw a group of five boys go in the direction of the river and minutes later saw four making their return.
"I see that it was five of them go down and four come back. Di pickney dem so wicked because them could call somebody and the boy would not drown," he said. "I see them leave a school bag under a tree and I take it and give it to the principal."
The hours passed and Angella Johnson, Kris-neive's mother, got worried, when her son was late in coming home from school. Ms. Johnson went in search of him, asking students whether or not they had seen him.
The grief-stricken mother spoke to The Gleaner on Tuesday, following a post mortem on her son's body, which was found on Monday evening.
"I went to the school and somebody said that a bag was left and that I can check if it is Krisneive's bag. I found the bag and I went by his friends' houses and they say that they don't see him. It was not until late before we hear what happen," she recalled.
"My son don't go to river at all, he is from church to school. He is obedient and helpful ... I miss him a lot."
Since the tragedy, the students have benefited from grief counselling from the Ministry of Education and Jamaica Consta-bulary Force officials.
