11 year-old shooting victim Kyron Green is still in intensive care at the KHMH after he was shot in the face on Friday night. But his school, Saint Luke's Methodist has been stepping up big time for this student who is missed in his Standard four classroom.
There is outrage at the school, as well as in the general public, that an innocent child, known for his big personality, is fighting for his life in a hospital bed simply because he was collateral damage in an adult's gang war while running an errand for his mother.
The school held a candle light vigil in his honor yesterday evening on its compound, and this morning the teaching staff was busy with a barbecue sale. It's the school's attempt at fundraising to help Kyron's parents afford his medical bills.
When we stopped by their Mahogany Street compound this morning, we found the teachers scrambling to serve a huge crowd of customers who showed up to support the fundraiser. The Vice Principal told us they are hoping to meet a target of $2,000 to hand over to Kyron's parents:
Reporter
"How has it been going since morning?"
Carolyn Welch - Vice Principal, St. Luke Methodist
"It's crazy from since morning. We don't have enough hand and food right now. The support has been going awesome."
Reporter
"So, at the end of the day you guys are hoping to raise quite a sum of money."
Carolyn Welch
"We hope to raise the targeted amount that we would like to."
Reporter
"What was that target?"
Carolyn Welch
"I believe it's like $2,000."
Reporter
"And you're well on the way to doing that."
Carolyn Welch
"Definitely."
Reporter
"So, explain to us how you all are trying to supply all the orders and the walk-ins that have happened."
Carolyn Welch
"Right now, we've cut off all the walk-ins, and we're dealing with the orders because we do $3 per plates for the babies, for the students, and then adults for $7. And with the amount of orders that we got in, we're trying to accommodate. And even though, we may have a few excess, those have been sold out."
Reporter
"So, were you guys surprised by the level of support, or did you all expect this?"
Carolyn Welch
"I'm extremely surprised by the level of support for this function, for this event. I wish that whenever we have any fundraising, the support would be this amount. We need to thank Mr. Mark Usher who has been staunchly behind us. He was the one who supplied most of the chicken for us to do the barbecue. He barbecued everything. He did everything in that regards. So, we have to say thanks very much to him, and even the family of Kyron. They have been very supportive in this endeavour. We just pray and pray and hope for the best for Little Kyron that he recovers and get back with us quickly."
The school is planning a march for peace tomorrow morning, starting at their school compound.
Turning now to an update on Kyron himself, his mother, Marsha Belisle, told us today that the MRI has indicated to the doctors that he has a swelling on his spinal cord. As we told you, the bullet struck him in the face, and upon exit, it injured his cervical vertebrae, those the bones in the neck that support and protect the upper portions of the spinal cord.
That's the bad news; the good news is that there is no sign currently that the bullet has negatively affected his brain.
His mother told us that she is thinking positive and hoping for the best, because while her son is still on a ventilator, he has shown other small signs of improvement. She is hoping that the swelling will slowly start to go down, and that her family can start exploring possible options to get him more specialized treatment, which may be only available abroad.
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