Safety checks essential for people carrying kids to and from school

The tragic death of two toddlers – 3-year-old Nong Oey in Samut Prakan and Nong Potter in Si Sa Ket – who were left forgotten in school vans for several hours after school, represent negligence at kindergartens, as these kids are unable to care or survive by themselves.

The claim that children, whether in vans or a pickup truck, were sleeping – and this was why teachers did not see them – does not make sense.

Children need to be trained to know how to survive, so they can be shown how to pull up the button of a lock and open the door manually – or to honk the horn for help. That would be good guidance. But I’m afraid that when children wake up, perhaps startled after sleeping several hours in a hot and closed vehicle and in state of exhaustion, or even unconscious, their physical strength may not be enough to get help in those ways.

Most important, teachers who have to transfer children home must treat them like their own descendants, so, teachers need be alert – to count and re-check the number of children who get on and get off a school bus, including to send them correctly to class. And before taking a school bus or van to park it in the morning before getting children back home in the afternoon, they must make sure none have been forgotten inside.

With these small steps, toddlers’ beginning in schools will be safe from tragedy of neglect and not be left forgotten in school vehicles.

Sutipunt Bongsununt

Kanchanaburi