The news no parent wishes to hear surfaced recently when it was reported that a grade 7 learner at Pretoria’s Laerskool Queenswood died of drowning while on a school excursion.
Latoya Temilton, age 12, attended the excursion hosted at Wag ‘n Bietjie Resort in Witkoppen, Olifantsfontein on Saturday, 20th Jan. These beginning of the year excursions are usually held the first few weeks of the school reopening and serve as a team building exercise with the aim to get learners familiar with each other.
After the news started circulating, Anele and the Club breakfast show host Anele Mdoda spoke to a media personality who led the story through details shared by close people and Latoya’s parents.
The media personality explained that the 12-year old’s mother was told of her child’s death over the phone after initially being told that the child had fallen and suffered head injuries.
Television producer and radio show host Anele read a message that was sent by a parent of one of the learners through her social media, that read:
“Something tragic happened at my daughter’s school. We were told to keep it shut and I’m so hurt by it. There was a leadership camp that happened on Saturday the 20th of Jan 2024.”
She further explained to Anele that parents were only given the indemnity form on the day, just before the bus left with their kids.
She further explained that Latoya’s mother was told in a way careless manner of her child’s death.
“The principal got there in the afternoon he performed CPR on the child, he called the mom and said to her, “listen your child has fallen and hit her head, which is very untrue at this point. He then called and said, mem your daughter has unfortunately passed,” she added.
The caller also added that one learner expressed that she saw Latoya when she was “lifting her hand and flapping in the water while she was drowning” but because of her playful nature, they didn’t take her serious.
The caller added that the kids shared that it took at least 205 minutes looking for her.
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