The first day of her school life ended tragically yesterday for a nine-year-old girl, who lost the ability to speak years ago in an accident, when she fell into a pit latrine at the Santa Rosa Primary School, Moruca and drowned.
Tanesha De Souza of Santa Rosa Village was pronounced dead at the Kumaka District Hospital, despite the efforts of residents who used an axe to expand the seating area so that a parent could squeeze through to pull the child from the filth.
A police press release said the incident occurred around 9 am when the child “went to answer a call of nature”.
The release said she was accompanied by another student who waited outside. Shortly after screams were heard and De Souza was taken out of the pit and rushed to the hospital where she died.
Speaking to Stabroek News via cellular phone, Santa Rosa Primary School Headmaster Lloyd Savory said that some time back the child had been involved in a serious accident that robbed her of her speech. Because of her condition, she was never sent to school. However, he said, he encouraged her parents to enrol her because “a child should not be deprived of education”.
According to Savory, yesterday, the child’s mother, who is a teacher, took her to school but admission was not being done at that time and she asked permission for her to stay at the school.
He said the child was left in a classroom in the care and control of another teacher who was unaware of her situation. He explained that the child began holding her belly and when the teacher asked if she wanted to go to the washroom, she nodded her head.
The Headmaster said that the teacher sent the child accompanied by another to the outhouse, as she was speaking to some parents.
He said the teacher was also unaware that that child had not been trained to use the outhouse. Savory told this newspaper that he was on the veranda outside his office talking to some parents when another parent’s shouts alerted him to the incident. “It is a very sturdy pit latrine so we had to use an axe to smash the seat before a parent could go into the opening and pull the child out,” he said, adding that the entire community, including the school body has been thrown into a state of shock and mourning.
He said the medical staff at the hospital were informed and they went to the school and took her there but she later died. He said that the police were also informed and they went to the school and conducted investigations.
Savory stressed that this was the first such incident at the school, which houses over 730 students with a teaching staff of 24.
He said there are four pit latrines and children would usually use them under supervision. Savory pointed out that on the first day of school, the students would be accompanied by teachers to ensure that they used them correctly.
