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Hesran Ballantyne, left and Junior Bowens, the fathers of two of the seven students who died in the Rock Gutter Tragedy on Jan. 12, 2015, at the 10-year memorial service on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025.
Hesran Ballantyne, left and Junior Bowens, the fathers of two of the seven students who died in the Rock Gutter Tragedy on Jan. 12, 2015, at the 10-year memorial service on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025.
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Fancy on Sunday marked the 10th anniversary of the death of seven students in the Rock Gutter Tragedy, with the fathers of two of the deceased saying that they have made much progress in dealing with their losses.

The seven students — Anique Alexander, 11; brothers Jamall Edwards, 12, and Jamalie Edwards, 14; Simonique Ballantyne, 13; Chanstacia Stay, 15; Racquel Ashton, 17; and Glenroy Michael, 17 — died when minibus HL636, in which they were travelling to school, careened down a steep section of road and plunged into the sea between Fancy and Owia on Jan. 12, 2015.

Ballantyne and Stay’s bodies were never recovered from the sea.

Speaking at a memorial service at the Fancy Government School, Junior Bowens, Racquel Ashton’s father, said that the parents of the students wish Jan. 12 never come “because it’s synonymous with the Rock Gutter Tragedy”.

He said that although 10 years have passed, he still remembers the day “as if it was yesterday”.

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“I remember the raging sea. Remember remnants of children’s uniforms floating in the water — their books, their bags. We remember the battered and beaten bodies of the deceased and the survivors. We remember the anguish, panic, pain and the tears of the parents when they learnt their loved ones were missing.”

Bowens, an educator, said that he learnt of his daughter’s death when a nurse called him from the clinic.

“I guess maybe that’s how nurses are taught — tell the good news first and the sad news after. The good news was my daughter was there. And, there was a pause. She said, ‘But she is dead.’”

Bowens remembered seeing his daughter’s body on the floor of the clinic, her uniform “unruffled” but wet.

“She wasn’t battered, neither she was bruised,” he said, adding, “For some reason, that day, she did not wear her trademark green bow [in her hair]…”

Bowens said that 10 years later, parents are still coping with their losses.

“Progress has been made thanks to the … support that we received from the government and people of St Vincent and the Grenadines and thanks for the support that we the families of the deceased have given to each other.”

Junior Bowens
Junior Bowens, whose daughter, Racquel Ashton died in the Rock Gutter tragedy said at the 10-year memorial service on Jan. 12, 2025, that the parents who lost their children can smile again a decade on.

He said that after the tragedy, they formed themselves in a group and interact with each other from time to time.

“The nights are not as sleepless as they used to be. Our appetites are back to normal, as you can see with some of the deceased’s parents, some of them have added on some weight,” Bowens said. 

“… smiles have returned; we can now smile, we can laugh. Our minds are at ease, and we are in a better place now than we were 10 years ago.”

Bowens said that parents have come to accept “the harsh reality of the untimely death of our children. However, their memories will forever live on in our hearts.”

He recalled the last word of his daughter to him as she left for school that day:  “Daddy, me gone.”

“Those … words that she said to me on that fateful morning … still ring in my ears.”

The father said that coming to accept the loss of his daughter was painful, adding that sometimes it had seemed as if he was “in dreamland”.

“The way the accident happened, the death of these children, it was so untimely, it was so unexpected. … for a while, I thought they had gone somewhere. I thought my daughter [had] gone somewhere and she’s going to return,” Bowens said.

“Some 10 years on, we have come to accept that our losses and those children, they are not going to return to us, not in this life,” Bowens said.

He called all of the bereaved parents present at the memorial by name and told them, “Our children are gone, forever.”

Rock gutter students
The seven students who died in the Rock Gutter tragedy on Jan. 12, 2015. From left: Simonique Ballantyne, 13; Chanstacia Stay, 15; Jamalie Edwards, 14; Annique Alexander, 11; Racquel Ashton, 17; Jamall Edwards, 12; and Glenroy Michael, 17.

‘a calm, soothing, healing effect’

Meanwhile, Hesran Ballantyne, father of Simonique Ballantyne, said at the service that in December he came upon something that she had written in a book on Sept. 16, 2014, about seeking a closer relationship with Christ.

He said that while he cried as he read the entry, it also comforted his heart and helped him to put together the remarks he made at the event.

Ballantyne said that when he was a child, people would say that God takes the best roses to make it a pretty flower garden.

“And in my mind, I would picture the Garden of Eden with lots of singing and rejoicing. I never pictured … sickness, pain, cancer or accident; just people being happy and freedom.

“And that’s how I, Hesran Ballantyne, father of Simonique, whose body was never found, godfather to Glenroy and relative to all deceased, see them: happy and free.”

He said this picture has a calm, soothing, healing effect on him.

Ballantyne, a superintendent of police, said that on Jan. 12, 2015, Fancy witnessed an outpouring of love from Vincentians and people around the world who had heard about the Rock Gutter Tragedy.

“From that fateful morning the parents of the deceased became brothers and sisters and today we still hold that bond. We shared their memories together, mindful that each of us still grieves differently. Therefore, we respect our boundaries…”

Hesran Ballantyne
The body of Hesran Ballantyne’s daughter, Simonique Ballantyne was never recovered from the raging sea at Rock Gutter after the bus crash on Jan. 12, 2015.

Ballantyne said that the deceased children were disciplined, intelligent and focused.

“They were all passionate about school and churches and anything that they set out to do.

He said that Stay loved music and his daughter, Simonique enjoyed playing netball and was the chef in their home. Alexander wanted to be a singer and brothers Jamal and Jamalie had their eyes set on cricket and football. Michael wanted to be a computer technician.

“If asked, ‘How has it been over the last 10 years?’ the survivors, parents and community would give varying answers. But it also gave us things such as love, that we need to cherish, and of course, knowing our boundaries.”

Ballantyne said he was told that maybe one or both of the Edwards brothers may have survived.

Jamalie, who returned to assist his younger brother, was trapped under the remnants of the vehicle.

“That is care, that is compassion, that’s love,” he said of the brothers, who were said to have been still holding hands when their bodies were pulled from the water.

Ballantyne said their experience over the last decade has taught them to “embrace each day with hope, courage and renewed minds.

“I implore us all here today, as we cherish the memories of our departed, to go back with me to the Garden of Eden, where our flowers will always bloom, where they shine brightly, like diamonds, that we forgive, with forgiveness comes healing, and with healing, will be at peace with ourselves, and when we enter the Garden of Eden, we, too, can experience the joy and blessings that await us as we reunite with our deceased,” Ballantyne said.