Their grief defies description, but will lessons be learnt?

FOR the parents of Syed Hamza, life will never be the same again.

The grief of losing a child to what is manifestly, a cruel twist of fate, is incomparable. The 11-year-old Hamza died on Tuesday afternoon after he was knocked down by a speeding wagon outside the Islamabad Convent School in Sector F-8.

He appeared in an exam at the school earlier in the day and left for home. But upon reaching there, the student recalled he had left his jacket behind on the premises and made a return trip to fetch it. It was the last time his parents would see him alive although it is unclear if they actually had even this fleeting glimpse.

For the rest of their lives, they will mourn how a small journey to retrieve a flippant piece of clothing would extinguish the flame that was supposed to have warmed their lives.

Hamza got down from his car and as soon as he rushed to cross the road, he was hit by a speeding wagon. The victim was rushed to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) but died of injuries. A pall of gloom descended over the school, where teachers and students broke down in despair.

Should the tragedy be put down to fate — a case perhaps, of Murphy’s Law — or a combination of mitigating factors?

It is important to delve into the accident of life that, no parent should have to cope with, dread as many of them will have come to — alas, only after the episode!

To begin with, the road leading up to the school gate and beyond is virtually in a state of logjam. There is simply no direction as parents or drivers make an often desperate attempt to first wade their way in, and then, out after picking up students when time is called.

While many a road in the capital — even residential lanes — are swarming with speed-breakers, amazingly there is none on the road outside the Convent, which could force motorists to mind their speed and draw some value for precious lives.

But what does one say of the failure to employ traffic police to man what is a very busy area, at least at school opening and closing times, with considerably unruly state of affairs on the road outside? At the time of the tragic accident that took Hamza’s life, there was no personnel from the Islamabad Traffic Police to regulate the flow.

If the city’s traffic management fails to assume responsibility even after this profound tragedy, it would be in the fitness of things for a prestigious and financially well- placed institute like the Islamabad Convent School to take charge, put in place some responsible personnel and see out the rush hour. That’s the least it can and should do.

But even before the school management contemplates any such move, there is no doubt in my mind that it should begin to emphasise road safety among the students with clearly spelt out steps that help achieve that end. In fact, it is something that all schools will do well to replicate. Perhaps, it can take the form of a mandatory school lesson just to inculcate its absolute need — for all times to come.

Our hearts go out to the parents of Hamza even if we can never really begin to comprehend the magnitude of the sheer grief and loss. May Allah Almighty rest their son’s soul in peace and give them the patience to cope with life’s wanton cruelty.

Earlier this year, a still more disturbing incident took place when an 8th grader at one of the city’s high profile schools committed suicide after poor handling of an episode involving misconduct on the part of the student.

Reportedly, after a teacher was tipped off about the student watching a graphic picture on the Internet in the school lab, he was sent by the concerned teacher to the headmistress, who immediately asked to see the student’s father.

Afraid of the reaction at home and probably, out of shame, the student tearfully sought forgiveness for the ‘offence’ but begged the headmistress not to inform his father. In desperation, he even threw himself at her feet. Unmoved, she insisted she would call his father. As a consequence, later that day, the student committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan. Nothing could have been more traumatic for the boy’s family.

Perhaps, the headmistress could have shown a little more sensitivity and if at all, she felt forgiveness was not enough and the ‘offence’ demanded greater punishment, she could have resorted to some other form of reprimand.

It does not require Einstein’s genius to understand that children at the age of the student-in-question can be quite sensitive. Failure to grasp that essential has left a lifetime of agony for the unfortunate parents and even the headmistress, who will be haunted by her mistake — let’s give her the benefit of the doubt (something she didn’t allow the student) and assume it was a mistake — that led the student into taking his own life.

Needless to say, both the teachers (and by extension, the school management) and parents need to be a little more alive to the wellbeing of students/children. In the latter case, had they been discharging their responsibilities with a little more understanding, there might have been just a little less pain in the world.