Teacher concerned about impact of suicide on dead youth's classmates

Teacher concerned about impact of suicide on dead youth’s classmates

Jan 11, 2011 News

Concerned teacher and form master of 10-year-old Christopher Owen Bernard, a grade six student of St Paul’s Primary School who was found hanging, is calling on the Ministry of Human Services to intervene and offer counseling to the two children who discovered the body, and his classmates.
Ten-year-old Christopher Owen Bernard was found hanging from the ceiling on December 5, 2010 at his home at 65 South Better Hope, East Coast Demerara residence.

Rodwell Lewis

According to the teacher, Rodwell Lewis, Christopher was a student in his class, and as an educator and social worker he is very concerned about the hands off approach being taken by the Ministry of Human Services in relation to the teenagers who discovered Christopher’s body and his classmates who are somewhat disturbed by the hanging.
He said that in the history of Guyana a ten-year-old child had never committed suicide in such a way, and the traumatised victims should be counseled and monitored.
Lewis explained that after visiting the Ministry four days after the incident he was pushed around by various personnel.
Adding that he has been a teacher for 16 years, Lewis said that Christopher’s suicide was a shock to him since the child was so loving and jovial. However, he was made to understand that Christopher’s action was prompted by the locking up of his elder brother with whom he was very close.
The teacher further noted that the Ministry should intervene since “the classmates would think that it is cool or wise to commit such acts.
“Recently I was doing the subject ‘health and family life’ and we were looking for the definition of suicide, and I asked the question ‘How many of you ever think of committing suicide?’ I was very, very surprised at the number of children with their hands up.”
Lewis said that when he assessed the thought pattern of the children he was shocked. “When I asked them what caused them to think of that, they would say that they would be treated in a certain way at home, and many other things.”
He said that since the demise of Christopher the students in his class have been affected and are behaving differently.