Head Teacher Fined Over The Death Of A 3 Year Old Boy
September 28, 2007 | Filed under News
A head teacher has been fined £12,500 and ordered to pay costs of £7,500 after being convicted over the death of a three-year-old who fell from the playground steps while pretending to be Batman.
Kian Williams was said to have been in an out-of-bounds area of the school when he jumped down the steps, tripping on the last one and landing on his head.
Kian suffered swelling of the brain and died in hospital from pneumonia five weeks later.
James Porter who is the owner and head of the private school in Bangor in Gwynedd has been charged and convicted of breaching health and safety regulations.
James told the court children should not be “wrapped in cotton wool”. He said they were “designed to protect themselves” and needed to learn to move in a way that protected them from injury.
I don’t know what you think but my opinion is that children at the age of three can not always protect themselves and sometimes do need to be wrapped in cotton wool as they are only little and are still learning about life and the world they are in I should know I have a four year old son and he is still learning.
Apparently when the accident happened there was only one teacher, Rosemary Philippedes, on duty trying to supervise 59 children.
Well for a start that is wrong there should have been at least 3 teachers watching children that little in my opinion.
And although she positioned herself to see both the upper and lower playgrounds, she could not see the steps.
After the sentence, Steve Scott of the Health and Safety Executive said that meant that
“At the time of his fall, Kian was effectively unsupervised”.
The court heard that one girl, a classmate, who saw Kian jump said she told him not to. During a visit to the school with police officers she pointed to the steps and said: “That’s where he jumped. He thought he was Batman.”
Kian’s grandfather, Kenneth Williams, 62, said: “I know he’s been found guilty today but in my eyes he’s been guilty thousands of times - every time I close my eyes to sleep. He was just a baby still three years and nine months. Porter had a duty of care to look after him.”
If we can not send our children to school knowing that they are going to be looked after and be safe what is the world coming to.
I agree you can not always keep a eye on everyone and accidents do happen but with just one teacher on duty at the time looking after 59 children now that is wrong.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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This is an example of just how bad schools have got in the recent years - no wonder the numbers of home schooled children are up!
Yes I agree, children must learn to move in a way that protected them from injury but I’m talking about things like running around too fast in the house - not letting them jump to their death.
When a child, any child, is in your care you do your utmost to make sure that child isn’t in any danger.
One teacher to look after 59 young children? She is as guilty as the headmaster - why didn’t she say “look there needs to be more teachers out here, I can’t look after all these children by myself”.
I feel so deeply sorry for Kian’s parents. Being the mother of a young boy myself I know how boisterous they can get but you send your child to school in the knowledge they will be safe.
A fine is simply not enough - this headteacher should be banned as he obviously doesn’t know how to take proper care of children!!!!
When I saw this on the news earlier today, it made a very different statement - that he died from an infection he got IN THE HOSPITAL. Sure, he wouldn’t have been in the hospital if he hadn’t have fallen, but I’ve fallen and cracked my head open when young before, and I’m still here. It was the infection that killed him - not the fall. Also note how people who are killed by infections that are caught in hospital don’t have it written on their death certificates…