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A nine-year-old boy went to school for Sports Day. He never came home. He fell into an uncovered sewage pit - inside his own school compound - and died.
Now, I don’t know about you, but when I hear “uncovered sewage pit,” my first thought isn’t bad luck. It’s negligence. Someone knew that hole was there. Someone saw it. Someone chose to ignore it. And because of that silence, a child is dead.
We’ve seen this movie before. In 2014, an 11-year-old boy in Ampang fell into an uncovered monsoon drain outside his school and drowned. Only then did the council rush to cover it up with grill. In 2023, a four-year-old boy drowned in a pool next to his kindergarten because no one was watching. In both cases, it wasn’t “fate.” It was pure, preventable carelessness.
And don’t let anyone tell you schools and the Education Ministry can just wash their hands off this. The Federal Court itself has already said schools, teachers, and the Ministry owe students a duty of care. In 2015, after a bullying case in Terengganu, the government had to cough up more than RM600,000 in compensation. Why? Because the court decided: you had a duty, you failed, you pay.
So here’s what I think: the family of this boy must sue. Sue the school. Sue the principal. Sue the Ministry. Force them to open up their maintenance logs, their safety audits, their inspection records. Because if they can’t even keep children safe from falling into a pit of sewage, then what exactly are they doing?
And before the “it was an accident, redha je-lah” crowd starts wringing their hands - let me stop you right there. Accidents are when your kid trips over their shoelaces. Leaving a sewage hole exposed in a schoolyard is not an accident. It’s gross, blatant negligence.
We live in a country where authorities only move after someone dies. Where drains only get covered, fences only get fixed, and audits only get ordered once a child’s life is lost. Enough. We shouldn’t have to bury children before action is taken.
So yes, sue them. Not just for compensation, but for accountability. Because until heads roll, until schools and ministries know there’s a price to pay, nothing changes. And parents will keep sending their kids to school with a silent prayer: “Please don’t let negligence kill my child today.”
Fa Abdul (fa.abdul.penang@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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