Manama: A Qatar high school supervisor has been suspended for four days pending an investigation of a picnic trip accident in which a Qatari student fractured her skull and suffered a brain haemorrhage.
The girl--who is battling for her life at a hospital in Doha-- was among a group of five students who were taken on the picnic trip on Sunday by the supervisor in her private car.
"During the trip, the supervisor took the girls to a chalet," the girl's father said, quoted by Qatari Arabic daily Al Raya. "However, on the way back, she drove off without making sure that the girls were properly seated in her car, causing my daughter to fall on the ground. She was transported to hospital after one hour and a half, which caused her condition to deteriorate. She was later transferred to the intensive care unit at Hamad General Hospital," he said.
However, in her report, the supervisor claimed that the girl fell off a motorcycle she hired at the chalet area, the father said. "The supervisor told the other students to say that my daughter had a motorcycle accident in order to cover up for her negligence, but one of them told me how it all happened," the father said.
The school principal said that the supervisor did not inform the administration about the trip and that she used the school seal on letters sent to the parents to agree on the picnic without her permission. The trip was organised on a day off and the school was not involved in it in any way, she said. But for the father, responsibilities have to be assumed.
"It is obviously a cascade of mistakes and misjudgements, mainly not using the school bus for the trip, riding in the supervisor's car that cannot really accommodate all of the students, organizing a trip without informing the principal, taking girls to a private chalet and even though it was done with good intentions, it is a huge responsibility," the father told Al Raya.
"I will pursue the matter to the end for the sake of my daughter and to ensure that such a terrible accident is not repeated," he said. The public prosecution is now looking into the case. "We have launched an investigation into the case and we will take the appropriate action once we have the results of our own probe and that of the competent authorities," according to the Supreme Education Council.
