17-Year-Old Goes On Trial for Death of School Principal

The trial of a 17-year-old student who’s accused in the shooting death of his school’s principal began Wednesday, with the opening statement from the prosecutors.

In July, the teenager walked into the office of 49-year-old Nancy María Chaverri, the principal of Colegio Montebello, a private school in Heredia, and allegedly shot her in the head.

She died ten days later. Chaverri left behind a husband and two school-aged boys.

The incident sparked a nationwide campaign to stem violence in the country’s public schools as educators across Costa Rica met to discuss how to prevent this type of incident in the future.

“We are doing some things, but we have to be doing more,” President Laura Chinchilla said at the time. “We need a more ambitious program to confront violence in schools” (TT, July 12).