Tree crushes pupil to death

By: Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – The birthday celebration of a Grade 1 pupil ended in tragedy after she was crushed to her death by a fallen narra tree branch at Talaban Elementary School in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental on June 7, 2019.

According to Romeo Torre III, a teacher of Himamaylan National High School, his niece Fei Francine Limsiaco was playing outside their classroom and waiting for class dismissal to celebrate her sixth birthday at home when the incident happened.

A teacher rushed her to the hospital, where she later expired due to internal hemorrhage caused by severe head injuries and fractured spine.

Torre said he posted the incident on his Facebook account that day to call for awareness in schools to prevent the same incident.

It was an unusual incident because classes just started and Brigada Eskwela was just implemented two weeks ago, Torre said.

During Brigada Eskwela, teachers and school staff ensure the cleanliness and safety of the pupils and students before classes resume.

“There should be pruning of trees and placing of signage to warn students and pupils from playing or staying under hazardous trees, but the school was not able to do these two things,” Torre said.

Such unfortunate incident happened, which prompted him to reach out to the newly-installed principal for a statement. But the latter has yet to talk with them since the incident happened, he said.

Torre said the victim’s family talked with the teachers yesterday who admitted their lapses and felt sorry for the incident.

Torre said the victim’s family is planning to file a complaint before the Department of Education (DepEd) while waiting for the statement and action of the school principal.

DepEd has yet to issue a statement on the incident.