No matter how connected you are, everyone wants to avoid a court case.
It is emotionally and financially draining and when you are found guilty, it changes your life forever. So I imagine it must be for the staff of Chrisland School who are being arraigned for manslaughter over the death of Whitney Adeniran.
Even for schools like Chrisland, this court case can wipe them out. The lawyers defending the school, Principal, Vice, and staff are all SANs, (Senior Advocates of Nigeria). The last time I checked, these heavy lawyers charge hefty fees. The bail conditions for the defendants are stringent. So even if they have the funds to pursue this matter, their mental and physical conditions will be stretched thin.
When parents give you their children, they will begin to hold you to a higher code…keep my child safe!
Now, if Chrisland School survives this latest scandal, they have already learned a bitter lesson. This is a lesson I hope other prestigious schools are learning fast. It is holding them accountable for the children in their care. It is more than having extra eyes, and ears and paying attention to detail, all of these are requisites for running a school in this age.
Schools will learn that whenever children are going out of the premises; be it for inter-house sports in Agege or Ikoyi; when they go out for swimming lessons be it at Ikeja or Ketu, when they go on international travels, be it for a game or for knowledge, the school must be on guard and be prepared!
Hire ambulances
Schools must have a standby ambulance plus a certified doctor or just forgerrouboutit. When handling kids, even parents will tell you, these kids don’t give you notice before they put themselves in danger. They don’t wave a red flag to inform you they will be having sex with one another once it is lights out.; they won’t hint in any way that they will willingly take drugs, smoke weed or do things that might jeopadise their lives or the lives of their fellow students and put you in trouble.
No, kids don’t tell you that, they are that deceptive.
In the case of Dowen College in Lagos and Premiere Academy, Lugbe, Abuja where Sylvester Oromoni and Karen Karen-Happuch Akpagher both died respectively under mysterious circumstances. Schools need to be more vigilant and several steps ahead of these “conniving” children. What happened to the stories we heard of how Sylvester was bullied at school by some of his schoolmates? Yes, an autopsy showed his death was of “natural causes.” This is a hard dose to swallow, a healthy 12-year-old boy doesn’t fall and die just like that. It’s why his parents are challenging the result. And in Karen’s case, who the hell left the condom in her that led to her death, she was in school for goodness sake!
Parents will stop shying away from, “even if you go to court, will it bring back your child?” It’s as lame as it is unkind. If school authorities are negligent, the state reserves the right and parents too, to bring them to book. When precedence like this is set, others will take note. They ramp up their checks on the children they are paid to watch and even the people they pay to watch them.
Who’s checking the hired hands?
Speaking of, who exactly are schools hiring? People who work with children, regardless of whether it’s in the classroom or out must be scrutinized. In the UK, they call it a (Disclosure and Barring Service) DBS check. Employers should check the criminal record of anyone applying for a role in their schools. This ensures only people fit for the role are employed. It’s about ensuring only the best care, the best hands, are allowed around the vulnerable. But even if we all can’t get DBS checks, schools cannot afford to hire staff that will be negligent enough to get them in trouble. The onus is on the authorities to ensure the safety of children in their care.
Will all of these guarantee zero casualties?
No. While I admit accidents can and will happen, being several steps ahead, especially when there are more than one of these children under your care will go a long way to help school authorities and every institution that manages children on a large scale.