Teams from Education Ministry and CPFSA Visit Family of Slain Student

Teams from the Ministry of Education and Youth, Region 3, and the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), Northeast Region, visited the family of slain eight-year-old Talia Thompson at their home in Discovery Bay, St. Ann, on Tuesday (October 3).

The Discovery Bay All-Age School student was allegedly raped and murdered on Saturday, September 23.

In an interview with JIS News, Regional Director at the Ministry of Education and Youth, Region 3, Karlene Segre, said young Talia’s death has been felt by the entire region.

“When one child is hurt, we feel it for all the children. Today, visiting the family, I sensed despair, loneliness and sadness. The family is totally distraught by the events that led to Talia’s untimely passing. We visited with the team from CPFSA just to provide some psychosocial and emotional support to her mother and her grandmother,” Ms. Segre said.

She noted that the unfortunate incident has brought greater awareness to the forefront about how children themselves should be aware of their own environment, “and parents should ensure that their children are in proper care and that they know what is happening around them”.

“For us at the Ministry of Education, we are terribly distraught by what happened here in Discovery Bay, and we wish for it never to occur in any other household. We want our children to be safe and secure, because if we destroy them, we are destroying Jamaica’s future,” Ms. Segre emphasised.

For her part, Acting Principal at Discovery Bay All-Age, Monica Codner, said that the students have been receiving a lot of support from persons and entities since Talia’s passing.

“We have been getting a lot of support on a continuous basis; people have been coming in, sitting with the children from Talia’s class, doing devotions [and] doing sessions,” Mrs. Codner informed.

“We have a very active guidance counsellor who has been doing counselling sessions with them (students). We have been getting a lot of support. The children were very sad day one, day two, day three [after Talia’s death], but with the support we have been getting, they are more settled now,” she said.

Mrs. Codner also told JIS News that a memorial display was set up at Talia’s desk by her classmates.

Regional Director of the CPFSA’s Northeast Region, Carolyn Stewart, said that while Talia’s family is strong in the face of such a tragedy, “it must be very difficult”.

“When you think about Talia’s circle, to include her friends at school, her teachers, cousins, [other] relatives and so on [at her home], we have to consider everybody. One of the first things we have to remember is that people grieve differently. The red flags will go off when you see the tears, the depression and so on, but at least those are obvious signs,” she said.

Ms. Stewart encouraged the parents of Talia’s cousins, who live in the same home, and parents of children with whom she attended school, to pay attention to the non-verbal cues, as children who appear to be okay are the ones who at times do not get the therapy that they need.