Dear Editor,
On Wednesday afternoon, the life of 14 year old Joel Adams was snuffed out, while attending a swimming programme at the Aquatic Centre. These days’ citizens can hardly have faith in official reports coming from the Government Ministries. The focus of this letter points to the sanctity of all lives.
The report from the responsible agency is the old, as we say, cock and bull story, and I hope that a proper and full inquiry would be conducted to ascertain the cause and person or persons responsible for this young man’s untimely death. The report states that there was a Nurse – is this nurse an official part of the learn-to-swim programme?
Second, one must assume that protocol demands a certain number of certified, and therefore alert and competent lifeguards to manage the number of trainees in the pool at any given time. Every lifeguard everywhere is trained to perform CPR and First-Aid. Was this done while awaiting the arrival of the ambulance?
Editor, it is unnecessary for me to go into more details, save to say, that if the above basics were not employed, we are looking at a clear case of criminal negligence. Of course, the post-mortem should provide sufficient data for the authorities to proceed with. May I add this caveat, if the Government is persuaded, and they should be, to hold a proper inquiry, the Terms of Reference should not prevent the person or Commission conducting the inquiry to disallow them from calling as a witness, the responsible person(s), including the Minister to assist in the conduct of the inquiry.
In our society, Ministers are like the ubiquitous Monarchs, taking credit for every project done. All lives matter.
Dear Editor, I hope that you and others will join in a request or rather to demand a full investigation into the death of this 14 year old youngster.
Sincerely,
Hamilton Green
Elder