“I must say he was in very good spirits when I saw him. His mother was there with him at his bedside,” remarked Education Minister Shawn Edward as he paid a visit to 5-year-old Bradley Labadie, who was one of four victims of a brutal chopping incident at Industry, Choiseul last Friday.
The young boy, who is a student enrolled at the Delcer Combined School, is nursing his wounds at the St. Jude Hospital. Education Minister Edward disclosed to the media on Monday that, upon learning of the incident, he paid the victim and the family a visit: “I made conversation with him. I gave him a toy and as I said, he was doing fairly well given the circumstances.”
Edward says the Ministry of Education condemns the attack on the young child and says he hopes justice will be served to the perpetrator of this heinous act.
“This is something that the Ministry of Education emphatically denounces, and we condemn any act of violence in this country, particularly when it is perpetrated against children of that age. And I hope that law enforcement personnel will deal with the culprit and bring him to justice at the soonest,” he said.
Edward says the Ministry “will not stand and remain silent on such an issue” and that a team of officials have already been engaged to provide the child with the assistance he needs to recover.
“We have through the Office of the Chief Education Officer, Dr. Pauline Antoine Prosper, who is also the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education, who is from the Choiseul community, along with District Education Officer Clark Nicholas, as well as the principal of the Delcer Combined School. They have all been reaching out to the family to provide as much support as possible,” he explained.
Edward adds that the Ministry’s counselling apparatus have also been deployed to the school and wider community to render the needed psychosocial assistance.
