St Francois Girls’ College mourns loss of former student

JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

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Past and present stu­dents of St Fran­cois Girls’ Col­lege gath­ered in the school’s hall yes­ter­day to ho­n­our the mem­o­ry of for­mer stu­dent Kieyan­na Seechan, whose body was re­cov­ered ear­li­er in the day af­ter she was re­port­ed miss­ing fol­low­ing a boat­ing in­ci­dent in Ch­aguara­mas last Sun­day.

Stu­dents and teach­ers open­ly wept through­out the memo­r­i­al, as they re­flect­ed on the life of the 17-year-old as­pir­ing teacher, who was re­mem­bered for her warmth, kind­ness and in­fec­tious smile.

For­mer prin­ci­pal Tra­cy El­lis said the news of Seechan’s body be­ing found was among the sad­dest she had re­ceived.

“The con­fir­ma­tion of Kieyan­na’s death has left us torn to pieces,” El­lis said.

“Kieyan­na was a love­ly, car­ing child. She was one of those beau­ti­ful girls who would al­ways come and ask, ‘Miss El­lis, did you eat to­day? Miss, are you okay?’ She was al­ways smil­ing when­ev­er she saw me. Such a lov­ing child.”

Vice-prin­ci­pal Sta­cy-Ann Smith al­so of­fered words of com­fort to Seechan’s griev­ing fam­i­ly, some of whom at­tend­ed the memo­r­i­al and com­fort­ed stu­dents dur­ing the pro­ceed­ings.

“It is hard to lose a sis­ter, a daugh­ter, a friend, but to­day we stand to­geth­er not just as a school but as a fam­i­ly,” Smith said.

“To Kieyan­na’s fam­i­ly, her friends, her com­mu­ni­ty and her teach­ers, we are deeply sor­ry for your loss. Rest as­sured that we stand with you in sup­port and love as we re­mem­ber the beau­ti­ful per­son Kieyan­na was.”

At one point, both ed­u­ca­tors were hand­ed tis­sues by Soleil Blades, one of Seechan’s for­mer class­mates, as emo­tion over­took them while speak­ing.

Blades ex­plained that the gath­er­ing had orig­i­nal­ly been in­tend­ed as a prayer ser­vice for Seechan’s safe re­turn. How­ev­er, the fo­cus shift­ed fol­low­ing news that her body had been re­cov­ered.

“To­day, we are here to cel­e­brate Kieyan­na’s life,” Blades said.

“Kieyan­na was more than just our class­mate or some­one we passed in the halls. She was our sis­ter. I can say she was one of the best peo­ple to talk to, study with and lime with, but I think every­one here knew what her en­er­gy was like and how her smile made peo­ple feel.”

The memo­r­i­al con­clud­ed with prayers, gospel mu­sic and a can­dle-light­ing cer­e­mo­ny in ho­n­our of the young woman, who had hoped to be­come a teacher.

Seechan was one of three vic­tims re­cov­ered yes­ter­day. Her cousin, Amyir Ali, was found short­ly af­ter 6 am off Scot­land Bay. Ap­prox­i­mate­ly four hours lat­er, search teams re­cov­ered Seechan’s body. The body of Ja­heim Richards was found at about 1.35 p.m.

On Thurs­day, searchers re­cov­ered the bod­ies of Anil Ahy­ee and Ti­tus Au­gus­tine.

The body of Loren­zo Oliv­er re­mained miss­ing up to yes­ter­day evening, with search ef­forts con­tin­u­ing.