No tolerance for negligence

The decision of the Amman public attorney to detain five people from Cambridge High School for questioning in connection with the drowning of a seven-year-old student last month in the school’s pool sends the clear message that authorities have no tolerance for school negligence.

Parents send their children to school, and it has always been the case, safe in the knowledge that they are protected and that at no times are their lives in danger.

Accidents do happen, and they could happen right under the parents’ eyes.

But in this case, like in the previous similar tragedy, there is no excuse for it to happen.

Schools are institutions of great responsibility, at many levels. And while the obvious — the instruction of our children — is at all times under scrutiny and produces tangible results, the implied one — their safety — is tacit and taken for granted, as it should.

These facts established, in this particular case the judiciary should be judicious in the manner it goes about detaining individuals believed involved in or responsible for the tragic death of the student.

It is a case of criminal responsibility, and not civil responsibility, and the evidence required for prosecution of the former is much more stringent than the evidence needed to establish civil responsibility.

The owner of the school, for example, cannot be held criminally liable. The slackness in this case may not have reached the level of criminal negligence.

One has to be careful not to confuse civil responsibility, for which the owner and principal of the school could be held accountable, with criminal responsibility.

Investigation will decide whether there is enough evidence to incriminate the two sports teachers.

Whatever the case, there is no justification for holding the five people in custody for a week when there is minimal chance that they will abscond justice.

Once responsibility for the death is decided, there is no doubt that the person, or persons, have to be held liable.

No amount of punishment will right the wrong done, however. And that should always be remembered by schools everywhere in the country.