The Daily Graphic's report of a student's tragic death at Labone SSS due
to what appears to be administrative negligence, should remind us once again
about the need for diligence
within our own school's administration -- the same exigency prempeh.org has
been trumpeting over the past few months. Because of the recklessness and intemperance with
which masters like Agyei Budu approach their duties (i.e., the make-me-do-it-if-you-can attitude)
when the Headmaster is not around, there is a high likelihood that an ailing
student may face dire consequences if the headmaster is not on the scene, especially
since we do not have any effective Senior Housemaster in place and Assistant Headmasters feel
that their only role is to deliver messages of "the boss isn't here" when the headmaster isn't around.
Obviously, the Senior Housemaster's penchant for flouting the Headmaster's orders as soon as the headmaster
leaves the campus, just as we reported in a classic case last week, could one day spell doom for someone.
Given that a website has to condemn deliberate starvation of student athletes
before the administration develops the foresight to provide them food, we pray that it
would not take a catastrophic event before the Headmaster and his staff change.
The Graphic states that this particular Labone school boy died from blood clot in the brain from
a traumatic injury. Prempeh College have several candidates for this condition because there are masters
who are constantly caning and badgering them!!! In fact, we just published a story last week
about one athlete who got his head hit by one of the Prempeh teachers -- an incident
that has not been investigated by the authorities yet.
Of course all the clamoring for decorum by prempeh.org will serve as potential damaging
evidence plaintiffs could use to sue this Headmaster should -- God forbid -- something untoward happens to
anyone's child under his care. Which is why he needs to cement his reputation by placing his foot
on the ground and keeping his staff in check.
Daily Graphic Labone School blamed for death of schoolboy
Mar 27 2006
The Cantoments Police are investigating circumstances under which a
second-year student of the Labone Secondary School, Master Ramaine
Sarkodee-Addo died.
The District Commander of the Cantoments Police Station, ASP Alex
Kumangtani, said the family of the boy had lodged a complaint at the station
accusing the school and some members of staff of being responsible for the
death of the boy.
Master Sarkodee-Addo, also known as Junior, died on February 2, 2006 at the
Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, after he had come home shivering on the evening
of January 30, 2006 and was rushed to the Mamprobi Polyclinic the next day,
that is, January 31, 2006.
Narrating events before the death of her grandson, Madam Fredericka V. Okai
Anum, said Junior was given an infusion and oxygen at the clinic which
lessened the severity of his illness, but he had to be rushed for the second
time that day to the polyclinic and was transferred to the Korle Bu Teaching
Hospital on February 1, 2006.
She said she went to visit her grandson that fateful morning, February 2,
2006 and it was while she was attending to his needs, that he started
foaming at the mouth and within minutes died.
Madam Anum said a coroner's report indicated that the boy died from a blood
clot in the brain and alleged that Junior, when he arrived home, had told
her that he had been punished to fetch water from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. since he
arrived in school to begin the second term on January 22, 2006.
He said he had been punished because he had delayed for some days before
going to school when it reopened.
According to her, Junior had initially been refused an exeat by the school
to go home at the onset of his illness, but had only been allowed when a
friend of the family, went to the school and saw his condition and demanded
that Junior be allowed to be taken home by him.
When this was finally granted, he had to go home on his own without the
school providing any means of transport or anyone to accompany him, despite
his condition, she added.
Madam Anum also said Junior's school reports for the first and second terms
of his first year in the school were not submitted to her but she received
the report for just the third term.
She said that report showed that her grandson had no examination marks for
English Language and when she enquired from him, he said that the English
Language teacher had asked him not to come to the class again because he had
replied cheekily when a question was asked.
She alleged that no one from the school contacted her, as Junior's guardian,
to discuss any problems that he might have had with any of the staff members
and also claimed that the grandson might have died as a result of weakness
through the punishment and falling or hitting his head on something.
Meanwhile, when the headmistress of the school, Mrs Joyce Ossei Agyekum, was
contacted, she declined to comment since the police were still conducting
investigations into the matter.
