Bahrain school hiding truth about kid's injury : Mother

Manama : The Bahraini mother is still kept in the dark about what happened to her daughter inside a private preschool in the Kingdom even after days passed since the incident took place.

Um Fatima asserts that her daughter (Fatima, 2) had her shoulder broken while inside a private nursery school in the Capital and that the staff members, principle and owner have been hiding the truth about what injured her daughter inside the school campus.

She told DT News yesterday that the school administration continues to deny that her daughter’s injury occurred inside the school and that they are still not cooperative with her.

The mother yesterday met with a specialist from Labour and Social Development Ministry, which is in charge of nursery schools in the Kingdom.

The meeting follows instructions issued by Labour and Social Development Minister Jameel Humaidan to launch an immediate probe into the details of the incident and to coordinate with the relevant authorities including Education and Interior Ministries.

The ministry also announced that it is concerned about preserving children’s rights and safety within the ministry’s responsibility of supervising nursery schools. The ministry affirmed that it’s now investigating the matter and will take the necessary procedures against the school if negligence of the child was proved.

Bruised

Um Fatima said that she didn’t remove her daughter’s clothes since Thursday as she was in terrible pain. “I had to cut her clothes using a scissor. I was shocked to see a bruise on the back of her left shoulder. I documented the bruise and showed it to the ministry’s specialist, who also documented it and took our statements (Fatima’s parents),” she informed.

The mother also told that the specialist acknowledged the injuries, saw the medical reports and noticed that the child is scared whenever someone attempts to come near her injury.

“We were informed by the specialist that an investigative committee has been formed by the ministry to look into the case,” Um Fatima said in a conversation with DT News yesterday.

She said that Fatima is still in pain and the truth about what caused her injury remains unknown, adding that she is taking Fatima to a second appointment with a pediatric orthopedic today and will meet an attorney on the same day to follow up on her complaint against the school.

DT News reported yesterday that the school called the mother on Thursday and asked her to pick Fatima up from the school as she was sleeping.

The girl was crying when her father picked her up, but he didn’t suspect that any accident might have happened inside the school on that day.

The mother noticed that her daughter continued to cry in pain after she returned from the school. She took her daughter to a hospital when the educators at the school were suspiciously avoiding her questions about what happened to her daughter inside the school. At the hospital, the doctors informed her that her two-year-old is suffering from a fractured shoulder.

Um Fatima immediately lodged a complaint against the school at Nabih Saleh police station, as she was more worried when she was apparently told by the school’s administration that the surveillance cameras installed at the school weren’t recording since September. The mother told that she fears that her daughter was mistreated or abused while inside the school.