One dead in Lae schools fight

 By GABRIEL LAHOC 

A STUDENT is dead and another is in critical condition in hospital after a fight broke out yesterday morning between students of two schools in Lae.

Other students were injured before armed police intervened to break up the fight at Eriku. No comments could be obtained from police yesterday.

The dead student was reportedly shot.

Students were from the Bugandi Secondary School and Lae Secondary School. Parents and guardians after hearing news of the fight rushed to the schools to pick up their children.

Murika Bihoro, the Morobe provincial education adviser and a former principal at Bugandi, went to the school to talk the students out of further retaliation.

He was told by the Bugandi students that they were attacked by the other group last Saturday.

Bihoro, who was shocked at what had transpired, vowed to get to the bottom of the incident, the first big school fight in Lae this year. Late last year, a pastor’s son from New Ireland attending Bugandi was stabbed to death at the Eriku bus stop.

Bihoro is expecting reports from the heads of the two schools and the police soon. He said students found to have broken the law would be dealt with by the police.

Bugandi principal Tetang Punumping confirmed yesterday afternoon that one of his students had died and another was in critical condition at the hospital. He could not give any further details.

The fight began at about 8.20am at Eriku when students from Bugandi  marched with placards denouncing school fights from their school to Lae secondary where classes had begun.

The Bugandi students claimed that some of them were attacked on Saturday by Lae secondary students and the protest march yesterday morning was because of that.

Witnesses said some Bugandi students chased Lae Secondary students who were arriving late for classes. They also stoned the security guards and duty teachers manning the gate.

Lae secondary students ran out of classes, opened the school’s tool shed to arm themselves.

Missiles were thrown before heavily armed police arrived and fired shots.

The Bugandi students were believed to have been shot at that time after the two rival groups ignored police warning and advanced on each other.

Police continued warning students from both sides who, after exchanging  missiles, were jeering and taunting each other for over 20 minutes.

Teachers and pastors from the nearby Salvation Army, security guards and members of the public helped police calm things.

Despite the melee, the students did not destroy public properties, cars, shops, building or attack members of the public.