Update | JC student in viral assault video charged

A top police official has confirmed that the Jamaica College (JC) student seen in a viral video violently slapping a schoolmate has been arrested and charged.

Acting Senior Superintendent Mark Harris, commanding officer for the St Andrew Central Police Division, told The Gleaner on Friday that the boy has been charged with assault occasioning bodily harm.

The name of the grade 11 student has not been released.

The student was charged on Thursday and released after he was granted station bail, sources told The Gleaner.

According to sources, the incident occurred on the Old Hope Road campus of the all-boys school last Thursday.

The 56-second video recording emerged on social media over the weekend.

In the clip, several boys are seen surrounding a fellow student before one of them holds him by the collar with one of his hands.

He then used the other hand to slap the student in the face repeatedly.

Another boy could be seen striking him several times with what appears to be a belt.

The boy doing the slapping asked questions about money.

A public statement issued by the school on Monday claimed that the student who was assaulted admitted in writing that two weeks before the incident he took “certain items” that did not belong to him from a group of boys with whom he was socialising.

The items include a jacket, a pair of glasses and a sum of money.

The statement claimed that when questioned about the missing items, the boy initially denied taking them before later admitting to taking the items and committing to returning them.

The JC statement claimed that he returned some of the items, but failed to make full restitution and missed several agreed deadlines.

The school said he was subsequently confronted by the “aggrieved student” who demanded the outstanding balance and that the “physical altercation captured in the video occurred at that point.”

This account, the statement said, emerged after the “primary persons” involved in the incident were interviewed at the school on Monday in the presence of their parents and “signed statements secured”.

All students involved in the incident are scheduled to appear before the school’s disciplinary committee for “appropriate action”.

- Livern Barrett

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