Belizean scholar in Trinidad takes his own life

Many Belizeans are in shock tonight following the death of one of our brightest scholars in Trinidad and Tobago. Seventeen-year-old Rishi Cummins was a Belizean student at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. According to reports, around three on Monday afternoon, Cummins made his way to the roof of the three-storey Natural Sciences Building and simply stepped off. Barely alive following his fall, he was rushed to a nearby hospital, but there was nothing doctors could do. Cummins achieved international recognition in February 2003 when he was recognized with the Regional Award in Humanities in connection with the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Exams. An alumnus of Saint John’s College Junior College, he was only the second Belizean student to win such an award. In 2004, Cummins was also awarded an open scholarship by the Government of Belize and chose to study at UWI. Cummins’ scholastic achievement was marked by top grades and it is widely speculated that anxiety over less than perfect marks at UWI might have been a factor in his apparent suicide. According to press reports from T and T, the police in that country are continuing to investigate Cummins’ death.