Parents of drowned students seek justice

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PUTATAN: The parents of the three students who drowned during a school  jungle trekking excursion at a resort in Membakut, Beaufort on May 29 are seeking justice for them.

“Where is their responsibility as teachers who have asked our children to leave their house? When our children returned, we only received them back as corpses that are no longer here with us in the world,” mourned Norisham Purah, father of the late 16-year-old Danial Norman.

Danial, along with SMK Putatan students Hafiz Hamizan, 16, and Quzaimi Zakaran, 17, drowned during the trip.

Their parents, Norisham Purah and Fatimah Mohd Salleh, Abdul Rahman Ahmad and Nur Fazryena Fung Abdullah, as well as Jakaria Osman and Amisah Jaafar, had only started to grieve the passing of their children who they thought had passed away because of an unfortunate accidental incident at a lake there.

However, as soon as the parents learned on April 30 of new information from students who  witnessed the tragic incident, they decided to lodge their follow-up reports at the Penampang police station on May 4, demanding the school and resort involved to take responsibility for the negligence that had led to their children’s death there.

Norisham told the press yesterday that the initial information received from an SMK Putatan teacher regarding the events that led to the teenagers’ death contradicted with those from key eye-witnesses at the scene.

He said the family had been formerly made to understand by an SMK Putatan teacher, who was not at the scene during the incident, that their children had slipped into a lake after the side slopes collapsed beneath them.

Information given by witnesses at the scene showed otherwise and revealed that the resort appointed guide had led the school jungle trekking group towards the lake and instructed the students to get down the ledge  into the lake with the intention to cross it.

“As a mother, I feel aggrieved, my child was the last to drown. According to my child’s companions, he was left in a lurch.

“There was no one to help, lifebuoys, ropes, safety jacket … none. Until he sank slowly,” said Amisah, adding that her child Quzaimi had struggled between 15 and 20 minutes in the muddy water.

None of the 21 teachers participating in the SMK Putatan camping program were around during Danial, Quzaimi and Hafiz’s last moments on earth.

All three students were in the first group of the jungle trekking activity, which was led by a guide from the resort.

“All three families will continue to appeal to the authorities for justice and we are certainly not satisfied with what had happened to all of the three children,” said Norisham.

“It is as if the school had not taken responsibility for the camping that had been organized by them. Where is their responsibility as teachers until they are willing to surrender our children to a guide working at the resort?

“I, on behalf of the families, seriously seek justice and appeal to the authorities to take the appropriate action against the teachers who have been entrusted by the school,” he asserted.

Norisham also made it clear the families believe that Eco Lake Resort had not taken the necessary and sufficient security as well as safety measures to ensure the safety of the students.

They have also appointed lawyer Ram Singh to help them with their struggle to seek justice.