The teachers and staff at the Belize Primary School can’t get over their surprise at finding a grenade in the backpack of an eight-year old student who they said was a “good, well-mannered and quiet” boy. The incident occurred last Friday, 8 March and, according to school principal Sonia del Carmen, and the student’s teacher, Yanis Ventura, the child had no idea of the danger involved. The child said that he found the explosive device on the roof of his house, in the Los Molinos section of the Mella Highway and Charles De Gaulle Avenue, and he took it to school thinking it was a ball, with the plan of selling it to one of his schoolmates for RD$5.00.
The teacher noticed the excitement among the students, some said that their schoolmate had a water bottle of the kind called “chupi-chupi”, because the grenade looked like one, and others said it was a ball like the ones used in the movies, so she decided to open the boy’s backpack and found the grenade. She immediately contacted the captain of the School Police, who took the explosive for the necessary investigations. The boy was taken to the school Guidance Department where he tearfully described what had happened. His explanation was accepted by the principal and teacher. The school denied that the student carried the grenade as part of some homework, as was reported at first, and they said that the boy’s parents are responsible people who work and are aware of what happened to their son.