Court upholds closure of Abu Dhabi school over death of pupil



ABU DHABI // The school where a girl died after being locked in a bus will be permanently closed, a court has confirmed.

The closure of Al Worood Academy Private School was confirmed by the Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation on Saturday.

Abu Dhabi Education Council decided to close Al Worood after the death of Nizaha Aalaa, 3, an Indian girl who was locked inside a school bus from 7am until noon.

The school filed a lawsuit trying to overrule the authority’s decision, but the court found Al Worood to be negligent in a way that endangered pupils.

The authority said a school’s licence must immediately be suspended if it had been proven to lack safety standards.

It said the school hired a bus company that was not licensed to carry school pupils and recruited a cleaner to supervise, and an unauthorised driver.

The cassation court agreed that the bus lacked basic safety standards for pupils and that the driver was unqualified.

Nizaha fell asleep on her way to school on October 7, 2014. The bus supervisor did not check the back seat, where she was sitting, and the driver did not check before locking it up.

The girl tried to survive by eating her lunch and drinking a bottle of water. There were signs of her banging on the door and sticking her face on the glass to call for help.

hdajani@thenational.a

A MINECRAFT MOVIE

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Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg

Tottenham 0-1 Ajax, Tuesday

Second leg

Ajax v Tottenham, Wednesday, May 8, 11pm

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Partners/Incubators: UAE Space Agency/Krypto Labs 

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Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.

1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.

2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information. 

3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.

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