The students had not been provided with life jackets and other safety equipment to prevent such an incident during the competition. PHOTO:FILE
Tahira Parveen, The EDO Education, ordered the cancellation of a school’s registration on Thursday.
A two-member team — comprising District Education Officer Iftikhar Cheema and District Education Officer Secondary Education Shahid Iqbal had concluded that negligence on the part of The Lord’s International School System administration had resulted in the death of a 12 year old boy who drowned in a swimming competition held by the school.
The 12 year old boy, Suleman Manzoor Bhatti had been studying in 6th grade at the school. According to his family, Bhatti had come to school on Wednesday morning to take part in a swimming competition held under a summer camp at the school.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, Parveen said that the team, which she constituted on Wednesday, had shared the findings with her later at night after which she had decided that there was negligence on part of the school. According to Parveen, letters had been issued Thursday morning cancelling the school’s registration. In this regard, she said a letter had also been sent to the Lahore Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education.
While the school had closed for summer vacation, a swimming competition had been arranged at the school’s swimming pool in which 10 students were to participate. Parveen added, that the school had, prior to the competition, sought the permission of the parents.
Explaining the grounds for cancellation of the schools’ registration, Parveen said that the school administration had failed to provide any safety equipment to students. “The students had not been provided with life jackets and other safety equipment to prevent any incident during the competition,” she said. Parveen added the school was also guilty of negligence in ensuring that there were vigilant instructors to monitor the students in the pool.
Parveen said, that on Wednesday, the investigation team had also met the school administration and the children who had taken part in the competition. “Both the children and their parents are refusing to share any details of the incident,” she said.
Parveen said the exact details of the incident are still unknown but so far the investigation has revealed that it was an accident. “In any case there should have been safety measures taken by the school administration to ensure that children are safe during such activities,” she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 7th, 2013.
COMMENTS (11)
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This is always sad news when any one dies from drowning incidences, so my condolences and sympathies to the family.AND yes if you send your children to school, school swimming competition you expect adequate trained supervision, and a trained life guard/ first aid knowledge to be supervising adequately. in this case i don't know if there was a trained swimming instructor on duty one ideally should be enough for 10 children. unfortunately a life jacket is a floating device , you cannot swim with it the whole purpose is it helps you float , you cannot use life jacket when swimming and especially when taking part in a swimming competition it just hinders you. All children taking part in competitions must be able to swim to take part in the competition ? so we exactly do not know what went wrong , how did the unfortunate boy drown if he can swim???? that will need looking in to , was there other medical problem ? wrong with the boy , where were the other parents/ adults etc when there is a competition , people are around. ?? the details of this case is not fully known - ie how many adults around , how many swim instructor /life guard. it doesnt need deep water to drown, many sad incidences of kids dying in bath tubs , when parents get distracted with door bell, phone etc and leave child in water , it takes seconds to drown , so every one must be very vigilent when it comes to water and do not leave children unattended for seconds even, I can tell you the story of my little nephew in UK , i had a hot tub/outdoor jacuzzi in UK many years back , my nephew was 7 at the time, other older children were in jacuzzi with him , i went in kitchen to get juice , the kitchen was just opposite the jacuzzi , luckily i saw that my nephew was face down in the water and flapping his arms around trying to swim , we pulled him out , the other kids just watched, luckily he was OK, but NEVER LEAVE CHILDREN UNSUPERVISED ON THEIR OWN, ALWAYS WATCH THEM IN THE WATER. PARENTS /LEGAL GUARDIANS MUST SUPERVISE THEIR CHILDREN WHEN IN POOLS /WATER PARKS, BATH TUBS ETC. As this was a school trained swim instructor should be there, in other facilities like hotels , spas there is some times no life guard on duty and a clear notice tells every one this. I have just returned from Thailand were the top resorts/hotels do not even have life guards, they have a sign saying no trained life guard on duty , swimming at your own risk.there is no legal requirement for life guards in these facilities, however in schools there should be trained staff around.
This is always sad news when any one dies from drowning incidences, so my condolences and sympathies to the family. AND yes if you send your children to school, school swimming competition you expect adequate trained supervision, and a trained life guard/ first aid knowledge to be supervising adequately. in this case i don't know if there was a trained swimming instructor on duty one ideally should be enough for 10 children. unfortunately a life jacket is a floating device , you cannot swim with it the whole purpose is it helps you float , you cannot use life jacket when swimming and especially when taking part in a swimming competition it just hinders you. All children taking part in competitions must be able to swim to take part in the competition ? so we exactly do not know what went wrong , how did the unfortunate boy drown if he can swim???? that will need looking in to , was there other medical problem ? wrong with the boy , where were the other parents/ adults etc when there is a competition , people are around. ?? the details of this case is not fully known - ie how many adults around , how many swim instructor /life guard. it doesnt need deep water to drown, many sad incidences of kids dying in bath tubs , when parents get distracted with door bell, phone etc and leave child in water , it takes seconds to drown , so every one must be very vigilent when it comes to water and do not leave children unattended for seconds even, I can tell you the story of my little nephew in UK , i had a hot tub/outdoor jacuzzi in UK many years back , my nephew was 7 at the time, other older children were in jacuzzi with him , i went in kitchen to get juice , the kitchen was just opposite the jacuzzi , luckily i saw that my nephew was face down in the water and flapping his arms around trying to swim , we pulled him out , the other kids just watched, luckily he was OK, but NEVER LEAVE CHILDREN UNSUPERVISED ON THEIR OWN, ALWAYS WATCH THEM IN THE WATER. PARENTS /LEGAL GUARDIANS MUST SUPERVISE THEIR CHILDREN WHEN IN POOLS /WATER PARKS, BATH TUBS ETC. As this was a school trained swim instructor should be there, in other facilities like hotels , spas there is some times no life guard on duty and a clear notice tells every one this. I have just returned from Thailand were the top resorts/hotels do not even have life guards, they have a sign saying no trained life guard on duty , swimming at your own risk.there is no legal requirement for life guards in these facilities, however in schools there should be trained staff around.
@hammerman:
Was there a trained lifeguard available? That's all the information we need to know.
I have survived a drowning as a Kid, i can tell you this wouldn't have happened if EMTs or just even the rescue swimmers were on hold.
This is one of the most irresponsible response from the EDO....why should rest of the students suffer because of the management as the school's registration has been cancelled! Where will the parents run for their children's admission? The management must be arrested and their accounts must be seized and the school should be given new management...... The management needs punishment in person....otherwise they will get their school registered with new name and continue to play with lives of students
@hammerman: There must have to be some swimming instructor and doctor available for any such emergency. The management of the school must be punished.
First, this is a huge tragedy, condolences to the family and friends of the 12 year old student who lost his life because of criminal negligence on the part of the school and officials of the education department who ought to be charged with the responsibility of overseeing safety standards in schools, especially in sports such as swimming which require considerable vigilance by trained lifeguards.
Not surprisingly, state functionaries sprang into action long after a precious life had been lost. The sad truth is that all too frequently either there is no policy requiring schools to be safety compliant and in instances where a policy does exist, there may very well be a policy gathering dust somewhere in the hallowed halls of the secretariat in this very instance, it is not enforced. Perhaps this is a good time to have a policy in place which will require all schools to have a license for operating a swimming pool, ensuring that it is constructed in accordance with internationally recognized specifications that are age appropriate and that each facility has a filtration system and when in operation it is always supervised by a certified swimming instructor/trainer.
The kid died under the school's watch..wat other details do you need?
You do not need life jacket in swimming pool. You need qualified Life Guard to administer the swimming. I hope when school resume its operation, it improves health and safety instead of stopping swimming competition altogether.
School be asked to refund all school fee collected for summer holidays & reimburse the parents for all cost connected with new readmission of children in new schools
strange how a child drowned at a swimming competition. werent there ppl arnd to get him out of the water? wasnt there an instructor around? a person doesnt instantly die of drowning...was there no one there to help him? and pools for kids are usually not that deep so any non-swimmer could hav helped too.
why would students participating in a SWIMMING contest be given life jackets?? support equipment hinders one from being able to swim! have any of these people who passed the final verdict ever swum before? you cant get emotionally carried away when passing a judgement of this nature! the details of the incident have been left out which makes it inconclusive.