Linden student stabbed by classmate still hospitalised, suspect released on bail

Linden schoolgirl 15-year-old Shashamani Williams is recovering after she was brutally stabbed by her classmate about three weeks ago.

However, her mother Dane Lyte told the News Room that doctors say injuries to her ribs may take two years to heal.

“The doctor mentioned that the ribs… will take about two years time to heal; I was trying to get the other information concerning the internal injuries,” the mother told the News Room Monday.

The teen remains a patient at the Mackenzie Linden Hospital Complex but was transferred from the Intensive Care Unit to the female ward Friday last.

The mother of seven explained that her daughter remains traumatised and was too scared to be in the female ward so she was placed in a private room at the hospital.

Williams also began to eat solid foods and has slowly started to walk again.

“She is coming around, she is moving around just to exercise the doctor recommended so far she improved, is only a little pain she is complaining of by the [abdomen],” the mother said.

Lyte is still calling for justice for what happened to her daughter and noted that she is seeking a lawyer to help fight her case.

“Children is children but this issue is more serious,” the mother said.

Lyte highlighted that this not the first incident in the school with her children. She has four boys and three girls. She said her sons had to drop out of the school because of being bullied.

Meanwhile, the mother said Williams told officers that the fight started because she was looking at the suspects while they danced.

“She told the officer that it was something about dancing in the school, she claimed to say that the girls were dancing and she was looking and one of the sisters said -‘I would slap you and she said ‘slap me’- and a boy who is responsible for the fight from the same school took this child hand and slap her and there is where the fight begun,” the mother explained.

Lyte told the News Room that the parents of the suspects only contacted her once “to make a settlement” three days after her daughter underwent surgery.

Regional Commander Superintendent Hugh Winter said that since the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) advised the Police to conduct further investigations into the incident, they have not yet completed the investigation.

Once completed, the file will be sent to the DPP for further advice.

The two sisters involved in the incident were arrested; the 13-year-old was released from Police custody on her own recognizance and the 15-year-old main suspect was later released on bail.

Williams was stabbed to her lower back on January 23 last during a fight with another student at about 15:00hrs outside of the Linden Foundation Secondary School.

The teen sustained severe injuries to her diaphragm, muscles and tendons, her left lung, spleen and her stomach.