Investigations into death of three-year-old pupil on Abu Dhabi school bus continue

School officials say they plan to continue investigating the death of a three-year-old pupil who died after being locked in a school bus on Tuesday.

Nizaha Aalaa’s family are devastated about her death and are demanding answers about how she could have been left to die alone in stifling heat on a school bus in the middle of the day. Photo courtesy family membersShow less

ABU DHABI // Police and school officials continue to investigate the death of a three-year-old pupil who died after being locked in a school bus, as temperatures reached 39°C on Tuesday.

Al Worood Academy Private School officials plan to meet today to discuss the case after receiving a police report, said Dr Muna Al Ansari, an owner of the school and its president.

“From our part, we will continue [to investigate]. This is for our policy to protect our children,” said Dr Al Ansari.

Nizaha Aalaa, an Indian KG-1 pupil, boarded her bus in the morning but did not get off before the bus driver locked the vehicle. She was three years and 11 months old.

She was marked absent, but school policy is to follow up on the second day of absence, said Dr Al Ansari. She added that more than half of the students were not in class because of Eid Al Adha. The driver found Nizaha at about 11.45am.

Al Worood’s buses are operated by an outside company, school officials said. A bus attendant is supposed to check that students have boarded and left the bus, and the driver should make a final check.

Federal law states that a person who causes – through a mistake – the death of a person shall be punished with a minimum of a year in jail and/or with a fine, to be determined by a judge.

Bus attendants have to comply with legal as well as Ministry of Education regulations, said Yousef Al Bahar, a lawyer.

“The main criminal responsibility here is on the school’s principal, and then the bus’s attendant, and last, the driver, because it is the responsibility of the principal in the first place to ensure that all necessary procedures and precautions have been taken to preserve the safety of all students on the bus,” Mr Al Bahar said.

The driver is not responsible for checking the students, he said, but added that “they all share responsibility here and ought to be charged”.

Dr Al Ansari said school officials were “suffering for the students” and for Nizaha, who came to start a “new life” at school. She stressed the issue was “outside the school”.

“This is enough for me as a time for punishment,” she said. “We feel sorry more than anybody can imagine.”

She said the school had received “thousands of calls” from parents, and that she is “very happy about this feeling between the students and the school and the parents”.

“[Parents] have been really flexible with us and they understand,” said Dr Al Ansari. She said the school would offer financial support to Nizaha’s parents.

As kindergarten students left school early yesterday, several parents said they had received no official information about the child's death.

“It’s shocking and unbelievable,” said one mother, who asked not to be named, but said her child did not use the bus.

Awni Ramzy, from Egypt, said he saw officials responding to the incident at about 12.15pm yesterday, and the child was given chest compressions.

Walking with his son, a KG-2 student, Mohammed Nabawi said there tended to be no follow-up from the school by phone or text when a child was absent. “It is not in a controlled way,” he said.

Another father, who asked to be described only as an Asian expatriate, said he spoke to a teacher about the death and was told that “inshallah, this will not happen again”.

“This is management?” he asked.

The father said that twice his Grade 1 son was not put on a bus home, a service for which he pays Dh4,000 a year. “I am not convinced my child is in safe hands,” he said.

He said school officials had apologised for the incident. “Every person is sorry,” he said. “I mean, what does it mean, ‘sorry’?”