ABU DHABI // The supervisor of the school bus on which a toddler died after being locked in was forced to do the job, the Appeals Court has heard.
Nizaha Aalaa, 3, died of suffocation on October 7 when she was locked in the bus after it arrived at school. She had fallen asleep in the back seat and her body was found at 11.45am.
The Filipina supervisor’s defence lawyer said his client was employed as a cleaner and should not have been responsible for pupils, but the school was trying to save money by not hiring qualified staff.
“I objected and refused but the school forced me to do it,” the woman told the court.
But Hassan Al Riyami, a lawyer for Al Worood Academy Private School and one of its administrators, said: “She has a three-year university degree, how could she be ignorant?”
The bus driver and supervisor were sentenced in February to three years’ imprisonment for negligence.
The owner of the bus company was given six months’ jail for endangering lives.
He was also fined Dh500,000 for employing staff without sponsorship.
The school administrator was given a suspended, three-year jail sentence and fined Dh20,000 for failing to check student records that day.
The driver and attendant were also fined Dh20,000 each and they, the administrator and the school were ordered to pay blood money of Dh200,000 between them to Nizaha’s family.
Al Worood, at which Nizaha was a KG1 pupil, was fined Dh150,000 and ordered to close.
On October 20 last year, the Abu Dhabi Education Council ordered the school to close its doors at the end of this academic year, when its operating licence would be revoked.
Adec took over its management for the rest of the academic year. The regulator’s ruling followed Nizaha’s death and repeated poor rankings for the school, at which 59 per cent of the pupils are Emirati, after inspections.
All of those convicted have appealed. A verdict will be announced on May 11.
hdajani@thenational.ae
