A Queen's College student who was head boy of the class of 2024, and who was described by his principal as an "example of how young men should be in this country", died during a basketball practice on the school's campus on Saturday morning.
The student was identified as 17-year-old Dario Rahming, who was installed as head boy just two weeks ago.
"I was at home when the frantic calls started to come in that something happened on campus," Queen's College Principal Rev. Henry Knowles told The Nassau Guardian yesterday.
"It was an emergency with a student, and so I quickly dropped everything and tried to make my way to campus.
"By the time I got to campus, I was advised that an ambulance had come and picked up the student. He was taken to Doctors Hospital, so I went to Doctors Hospital to meet up and to see what all was going on. That's when we all got the really hard news, the bad news."
Knowles said "We're still gathering all of the details of the event, but he was not playing at that time. He was just sitting on the bench type of thing. But other investigations will have to happen to try to get a play by play of exactly what happened."
Knowles said the campus was active as many academic and athletic groups were meeting.
"QC campus, even on weekends, we have tutoring classes that teachers are offering; we have so many different sports teams," he said.
"The campus was almost half filled, probably a quarter or half-filled with students across the school for different activities, different events. It was an instant impact on the school.
"When I came on to campus, as I drove through, there were clusters of kids just on the fields holding hands, praying.
"In the high school, I met kids praying. It's that atmosphere that QC tries to embody throughout the community that we are all one. And when one celebrates, we all celebrate, and when one falls, we all fall. Everyone was just so prayerful and hoping for the best, but unfortunately God had other plans."
In an interview with ZNS on Saturday, Knowles said all of the school's protocols were in place.
"A lot of our staff are emergency CPR trained and they were there," he said.
"One of our nurses was on campus. She was outside with a sporting event and she was able to be right there in place. She rushed to the clinic. The ambulances were called, they came in record time and until then, we were doing everything that we could on our side."
Tributes from family, friends, classmates, and teachers poured in on social media.
One person wrote that Rahming was "a wonderful, talented, bright, caring, capable, warm spirited and much admired young man."
Knowles said Rahming was a devout Christian and he also preached. He described him as a "phenomenal young man".
"You know in leadership that you impact life and you encounter lives, but sometimes there are some persons who are just extra special," Knowles said.
"He just was one of those ones who was so loved from seventh grade straight up, and even some primary school students as well, because that's the head boy.
"He's always so friendly with everyone, mannerly, respectful. He takes the time off seeing them on so many occasions, taking the time to speak with students. His teachers speak so fondly of him and his deportment. I'm a father and that's the type of son I would want.
"Not only an educator who say we want him to achieve academic success, but he had the moral and ethical success with him as well. So just a really friendly, down to earth, respectful young man. He was always giving, always willing to help out."
Today, students will process Rahming's death in their homerooms before a larger school assembly will be held.
"We know that our 12th graders are going to be affected," Knowles said.
"Those are his day-to-day peers, his colleagues, and then the wider student body because he just became head boy two weeks ago. Everyone was hopeful of great things that he would accomplish. He didn't wait to prove who he was. He was who he was, even before he became head boy.
"We were blessed that many of the BAISS Association schools have also offered their guidance counselors to come on campus on Monday and throughout the week.
"We have several church denominations who have offered their chaplains. We are part of the Bahamas Conference of the Methodist Church. Many of the ministers are going to be on campus this week to be there for students and also staff given that Dario's mom is a teacher at Queen's College.
"She herself is well loved. We know that the next days and weeks ahead are going to be difficult and we just continue to try to pray and intercede.
"Our counseling department is going to fan out across the school; we're going to be there early. Like I said, we have other guidance counselors who will be offering their assistance and chaplains.
"We're going to have students spend some time in their homerooms first to process it as a homeroom, and then we're going to get together in the morning as a full high school, to then process it as a larger group.
"We know that there's going to be a lot of grief; that's inevitable. We would then just try to pause and let it be about the moment. We're going to just focus on the well-being of our students, our staff, and try to be there for them.
"We just had the loss of Obie Wilchcombe and he's a QC Comet. I know people know him as a politician, but we also know him as a Comet. We are already impacted by that last week, and now this. It's like the past and the present all come together under the same circumstances.
"Keep us in prayer as a school community. It's really impacting us."
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