Lagos Orders Closure of Chrisland School over Student’s Death

*Parents allege negligenceSunday Ehigiator

The Lagos State Ministry of Education has ordered the temporary closure of Chrisland School, Opebi-Ikeja, following the reported death of a student of the School, Whytney Adeyemi.
A statement signed by the State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo said the closure was ordered pending the outcome of a full investigation into the unfortunate incident.
Adefisayo, on behalf of the State Ministry of Education, commiserated with Mr. and Mrs. Adeyemi, parents of Whytney, and prayed for the repose of her soul.
“We also note the impact of this unfortunate event on family, friends and acquaintance of Whytney and call for calm as we assure that no effort will be spared in investigating the incident”, the Commissioner stated.

Meanwhile, the parents of the 12-year-old deceased student yesterday, took to the social media to accuse the school of negligence in the death of their daughter, Whitney Adeniran, who allegedly slumped and died during the school’s inter-house sports activities held last week.
In an online post, the Father of the deceased, Michael Adeniran, said his daughter died on Thursday, February 9, 2023, at the Agege Stadium, during the school’s inter-house sports.
According to him, the child had no health condition or sickness when the school bus picked her up for the event and was shocked to see the lifeless body of his daughter when he arrived.

Adeniran, who also said there was no explanation given to him and his wife from the school, added that his wife was present at the stadium, but the school did not call her attention to the incident immediately.
“To the biggest shock of my life by 1 pm, I got a call from my wife that she was informed that our daughter slumped at the inter-house sport and she was rushed to the clinic.
“My wife was at the venue even before the event started. She was never informed or called until they had conveyed our child out of the venue before they informed her.
“On arrival of my wife at the health centre where they took my daughter, my daughter was lying dead with her lips black and her tongue black.
“My wife called me urgently; I left my office and found my 12-year-old daughter lying dead on the ground. I asked questions about what happened to my daughter and the school authority could not get me any information as to what happened to my child in their care.

 “I gave Chrisland School a healthy vibrant young girl, what Chrisland returned to me was a dead child. My entire family is in deep sorrow but the school authorities claim they know nothing about my daughter’s death and all they know is that my daughter slumped and died.”
In a separate post, the Mother, Blessing Adeniran, narrated that the school was to have its annual sporting competition on February 9 at the Agege Stadium.
The mother said, when she couldn’t find her child in any of the activities at the stadium, she was told she slumped.

The mother said her daughter was already dead when she caught up with the team that rushed Whitney to the health centre.
She raised the alarm that the school had no provision for emergency response, hence didn’t administer first aid.
“No ambulance, doctors, or medical personnel in a place where you have about 500 students and over 100 parents. I rushed in to meet Whitney’s corpse on her deathbed. This happened in less than 10 minutes,” the mother said.
“I saw the staffer who went with her. I asked the doctor what happened and she said it looks like a cardiac arrest. How does a 12-year-old have a cardiac arrest without any pre-existing medical condition?

“If she was sick with even so much as a headache, I wouldn’t have let her go for the sport. By the time I got there, my daughter’s lips and tongue had already turned black. I jacked her up onto my chest but got no response.”
Reacting to the parent’s accusation through a statement yesterday, Chrisland School said Whitney was ill 20 days before the inter-house sports event.
Chrisland said Whitney had reported “not-too-buoyant” health on January 20. Based on proximity considerations, the school said it opted to take Whitney to a health centre, not a hospital.
“Whitney was one of our day students who opted not to participate in the inter-house sports match-past for reasons we were not very sure about.
“However, on discretion, we respected her decision to err on the side of caution because, on January 20th, it is in our records that she complained about not-too-buoyant health and we immediately contacted her parents.

“Her father, Michael Adeniran, came to the school to take her home. We emphasized to her parents to take a critical look at her. It is instructive to state that Whitney slumped in public view and not under any hidden circumstances whatsoever.
“Our immediate response was to take advantage of proximity by identifying the nearest medical facility to take her to, where the doctor on duty administered oxygen and every aid possible to her.”

Chrisland dismissed allegations of any foul play in the student’s death while citing that she slumped in public.
“Even as her family made funeral plans, we differed politely and reiterated the need to establish a scientific verification of the underlying cause of death as mandatorily required in circumstances like this,” it added.
This is not the first time Chrisland School Lagos would be at the centre of a crisis involving one of its students.

In mid-2022, four teachers were arraigned after a sex tape by Chrisland pupils surfaced online during an outing.