Walkathon turns into memorial

HUNDREDS of students, their parents and staff of the Point Fortin East Secondary school were joined by members of the Point Fortin community at its annual walkathon on Wednesday. They paid tribute to two students who were murdered in La Brea last month.

The walkathon has become an annual event in the Point Fortin Borough Day celebrations, but this year, under the theme Year for Love, principal Ainsley Gopaul used the occasion to remember and celebrate the lives of Olivia Chapman, 16, and her friend Michaela Mason, 14, and bring awareness of domestic abuse and violence to the fore.

Point Fortin Mayor Abdon Mason, along with members of his council, and CEO Donna Mae Taylor, La Brea MP Nicole Olivierre, school supervisor Zabeedah Hosein-Abid and other school staff joined in the two-hour walk through the borough. Afterwards, participants formed a circle, held hands and sang Let there Be Peace on Earth.

Chapman, her mother Abigail Jones-Chapman, 41, a teacher at the Southern Academy of the Seventh-Day Adventist School, their landlord, former teacher Michael Scott, 69, and Mason, who was visiting, were all killed as a result of a domestic situation. Rodger Mattison of Gonzales Village, Point Fortin, is before the court charged with all four murders.

At the start of the walk, led by students holding pictures of their dead classmates, Gopaul addressed the participants, who held placards denouncing violence, especially against women and children, and advocating “Real men don’t hit or kill,” the theme of the walk.

He told the audience that they can no longer stand on the side and merely be observers to what is taking place, but to take a stand against violence and crime. He also invited other schools to participate in the walk with the aim of achieving unity and peace.

“If they walk together, then we would not see the things we see on social media of children from different schools fighting, and gang violence.”