A secondary school student was rushed to the hospital after he came under a cutlass attack in Castries on Wednesday.
Education Minister Shawn Edward condemned the incident in an interview with reporters.
He disclosed that an investigation revealed that a feud between two students had led to a fight in the capital.
"The Chief Education Officer proceeded to the hospital to ascertain what happened, and later yesterday evening, she was able to confirm that a child was assaulted and he was at the hospital receiving treatment," Edward stated.
According to reports, the incident occurred near the Bexon bus stand.
One woman said she learned that the victim was awaiting a bus when two males with no masks and wearing no school uniforms launched the cutlass attack.
She recalled that no one took notice until blood started flowing.
"They cut the boy because he raise his hands," the woman told reporters.
She said the victim sustained a cut to his hand.
"There are so many people; all the bus drivers are there. Somebody could have said something. They could have at least hold the boy from the back that swung the cutlass. No one said nothing until one of the bus drivers said, 'They will behave theyself,'" the woman told reporters.
"What if was your son?" She asked, blaming the chopping incident on an ongoing feud involving the Sixx and Seven gangs.
"They go and take they gang from Trinidad and they bring it in Saint Lucia," the woman told reporters.
She declared that no one is safe.
"If you talking to a Sixx member, they want to kill you. If you talking to a Seven member, they want to kill you. But what I saw there yesterday, it was appalling," she stated.
"The boy school shirt, the top of it is dry, but the bottom is soaked, so I assumed he got chop all on his waist," the woman recalled.
Education Minister Shawn Edward said his Ministry categorically condemns acts of violence involving students, regardless of whether skirmishes occur on the school compound or away from school.
"We have a responsibility to nurture students as best we can within the school environment, but we have constantly been calling on civil society organisations; we have been calling on families to play a greater role in the orientation that we give as a country to our children," Edward asserted.
"Violence is not something that children should turn to to resolve whatever conflicts they may have, and so as a Ministry, we have summoned some of the agencies with whom we collaborate to an emergency meeting to see how best we can address some of the situations as they surface," the Minister told reporters.
At the same time, Edward revealed that the Ministry was working with the police to ensure that lawbreaking students get prosecuted.
In addition, the Minister spoke of stepping up psychosocial services in select schools to assist students.
He observed that young, restless students were imitating the behaviour they see in adults.
In this regard, Edward appealed to parents to take responsibility for their children's actions.
He acknowledged the existence of dysfunctional families and broken homes.
"So we will go the extra mile to work with the students who are coming from those families, but by and large we want parents to take responsibility for the actions of their children," Edward explained.
"Do not give up on the children too early because when we do, as responsible adults, the children will invariably reach out and look in the direction of elements in the society that are not favourable as mentors and role models," he told reporters.
In this regard, the Minister said the children would want to imitate what those 'undesirable characters' practice to gain acceptance and validation.
Just last week, the police began a probe into a chopping incident at the Ciceron Secondary School in which two students sustained injuries that required treatment at the hospital.
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