Schools and facilities such as school buses should be the safest places for our children.
But a heart-breaking incident concerning the death of a 7-year-old child in a school van due to teacher error has underlined the poor management of policymakers and responsible parties in taking care of our children.
The girl was found dead in a school van in Chon Buri on the afternoon of Aug 30 after she was left there for 8-9 hours.
Police found the girl lying face down on the floor behind the driver's seat. There was blood around her mouth. Her school bag and a cup of water were nearby.
A preliminary forensic examination found Jihun died as a result of heatstroke.
Teachers, one of them the driver, admitted they did not do a headcount of children when they left the van. They gave the van a quick scan and saw no one there.
The problem was compounded when no one saw fit to check the vehicle later; presumably someone noticed the little girl had not turned up for class. It is almost beyond imagining, how lonely and desperate she must have felt inside the van.
This is not the first tragedy resulting from teacher error in schools.
Shockingly, up to 129 children, aged two to 6, are reported to have been left alone in cars from 2014 to 2020, six of whom consequently died, according to the Department of Disease Control. Of the six, five died in school buses and one in a teacher's vehicle.
Over the past 10 years, one child has been found dead in a school van each year on average.
The figure looks low compared to other deaths but for a child's life, even one death is too much to be acceptable.
The figures show that the negligence of schools and teachers which cause the deaths of children is a big problem which needs to be solved.
Dr Adisak Plitponkarnpim, director of the National Institute for Child and Family Development, said many people misunderstand that most children trapped in cars will die from suffocation.
In fact, most dies from heatstroke. In a hot car, a child could perish in 30 minutes as the temperature inside can rise to more than 40 degrees Celsius.
It is unacceptable that schools and the Education Ministry have failed to adopt a simple procedure to stop these child deaths.
The ministry must adopt a proactive approach to solve the problem that focuses on identifying effective solutions. Schools must be punished severely for letting such tragedies happen, not just the staff.
Schools and teachers should turn their focus from nonsense such as policing hairstyles and uniforms to ensuring their facilities are the safest places for their students.
Many ideas have been floated as proactive measures to prevent such tragedies. Every school and van driver must have a checklist, noting each pickup from home and arrival at school.
Both the driver and teacher or aide guiding children off the van must account for each child.
Students have to be taught how to honk a car horn when they are trapped, and smart technology may be needed to identify those who are left inside a school bus. Safer school buses need not be pricey.
But the most important thing of all is that serious action needs to be taken immediately by policymakers and responsible parties to ensure the safety of our children.
