Ryan Ba­choo

Lead Ed­i­tor - News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

Erin was shak­en yes­ter­day by the trag­ic dis­cov­ery of 12-year-old Mer­cedez Layne’s body, a loss that has left her school com­mu­ni­ty in mourn­ing.

Layne, a Stan­dard Four pupil at Erin RC Pri­ma­ry School, was re­mem­bered by her teacher, Can­di John, as a vi­brant child who brought joy to the class­room.

“Mer­cedez was a very out­go­ing stu­dent, very help­ful, nev­er rude,” John told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day.

“If you asked her to do some­thing, she would be will­ing to do it.”

John re­called that while Layne some­times strug­gled aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, she nev­er al­lowed dif­fi­cul­ties to damp­en her spir­it.

“She had a lit­tle trou­ble, but that didn’t stop her from try­ing to do what­ev­er she had to do in class,” John ex­plained.

Layne’s pas­sions ex­tend­ed be­yond the class­room. She loved art, crafts, sports, mu­sic, and dra­ma, and was es­pe­cial­ly fond of danc­ing. She was an ac­tive mem­ber of her church’s dance group and par­tic­i­pat­ed en­thu­si­as­ti­cal­ly in school events.

“When I had my tea par­ty and fash­ion show, she was part of the dance they per­formed,” John said, her voice heavy with emo­tion.

The bond be­tween teacher and stu­dent was close. John em­pha­sised that she treats all her stu­dents with equal care, but she ac­knowl­edged the ex­tra sup­port Layne re­quired.

“I would give her sep­a­rate work to do, and she nev­er mind­ed. She would just do it. We were all very close in class,” John said

The tragedy has dis­rupt­ed school life in Erin. A planned field trip to Mt St Bene­dict to­day, which Mer­cedez was look­ing for­ward to, was can­celled, and teach­ers are strug­gling to cope.

“I haven’t eat­en for the day. When I got the news this morn­ing, I went straight to the crime scene,” John said. “All the teach­ers, from prin­ci­pal to staff, are in a to­tal mess. To­mor­row (to­day) we have to face the chil­dren, who by now would know what hap­pened.”

John al­so of­fered a heart­felt plea to the wider com­mu­ni­ty.

“We have to be our neigh­bors,” she urged.

“Even if that child is not yours, if you see some­thing off, pay at­ten­tion. Snap a pic­ture, note a car or van. That way, if some­thing hap­pens, we have in­for­ma­tion to act on. We must pay more at­ten­tion to the chil­dren in our com­mu­ni­ties.”

As Erin mourns, Layne is re­mem­bered not on­ly for her bright smile and love of dance but al­so for the re­silience she showed in the class­room. Her teacher’s words paint­ed a pic­ture of a child who, though gone too soon, left a last­ing im­pact on those around her.