By LAUREL V WILLIAMS Sunday, November 1 2009

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Students of Carapichaima East Secondary School shared in mourning the loss of Darrion Callender-Duncan who was killed by other students after a footba...

AN array of red clothing filled the funeral service of 15-year-old Darrion Callender-Duncan yesterday as mourners celebrated his short life with the officiating minister calling for change in the nation.

The Form Three student of Carapichaima ‘Caps’ East Secondary School was laid to rest at the cemetery of the St Phillip and St James Roman Catholic Church in Chaguanas yesterday.

Callender-Duncan received multiple stab wounds and was stoned by a group of students last week Friday (October 23) near the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella shortly after watching a football match between his school and Presentation College, San Fernando. He died minutes after the incident.

Addressing a tear-filled church, Fr Christopher Lumsden made a passionate plea for the public to turn to God and go back to basic. “All the sadness today has brought no change. Are we going to exercise the power of prayer to change this nation? Let this death not be wasted. Material things pass away but the word of God does not,” Lumsden said.

A drive or walk along the streets, Lumsden said, results in all sorts of obscenities and threats. No longer are people abiding by the golden rule of loving God with all thy heart and soul and loving their neighbours as themselves, Lumsden said. During the service Emry and Brenda Duncan gazed at the casket bearing the body of their son. They were consoled by other relatives including Callender-Duncan’s siblings Kwesi, Kerry, Kywan, Karlon, Kia and Ayesha.

Yesterday both Callender-Duncan’s aunt Bernice Obasi and his sister Kia Duncan delivered the eulogy at the packed church. As mourners, among them several of Callender-Duncan’s schoolmates, wept openly, Obasi called for justice to be served.

“As his family, we state categorically that we do not approve of the way in which he was snatched. We understand the gang was large. We know the Maximum Security Prison is even larger.... We await the outcome of the police investigations even as we plan our next step on his behalf, ” Obasi told mourners.

However, even in grief she offered a few words of advice for the young people of Trinidad and Tobago. “When words fail, find some other source of help. Young people of T and T, particularly those thirsting for revenge, we ask that you lay down your weapons of mad destruction. You deserve better than a police siren,” Obasi said. Form Three students of Carapichaima East Secondary School read a poem entitled “Hope and Pray” while another student Abraham Derry sang a song entitled “Dry Your Tears”.

Several students were questioned by police investigators but an arrest is yet to be made and investigations are continuing.