A Point Fortin family is considering legal action against the Ministry of Education, after a three-year-old girl’s fingers were severed at the Salazar Trace Early Childhood Care and Education Centre (ECCE) last week.
September 8 had marked Kimaya Samuel’s fourth day at school, but now the girl and her twin sister, Reyn, are afraid to return to the institution.
Reports stated that around 11.30 am that day, Kimaya attempted to climb onto a metal cabinet at the centre. While doing so, however, it fell on her, severing the tips of her ring and middle fingers on the right hand.
Her mother, Kipp Samuel, was contacted and the child was taken to the Point Fortin Area Hospital and later transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital, where doctors reattached the tips.
The Education Ministry has since launched an investigation and the centre’s administration has already submitted its reports on the incident.
Up to yesterday, Kimaya received treatment at a health centre and her grandmother, Marilyn Samuel, said both children will be kept at home until they find a new school. She said after a poor response from the ministry, they visited a lawyer for advice.
Although they are seeking compensation for Kimaya’s injury, Samuel said they want answers about how the accident was allowed to happen and they want the centre to implement measures so that no other child suffers a similar fate. She said when officials at the school called Kipp they downplayed the incident, saying, “‘Kimaya had a little accident, can you come pick her up?’”
Samuel said she panicked and went to the centre, located two minutes away from their home, but on reaching there got frantic when she saw her granddaughter sitting on a chair, shivering, with her right hand in some ice.
“She is a toddler and she was just sitting there in pain, no comfort or anything. They called and said ‘she had a little accident, don’t worry,’ but when I reached there nobody looked at me. Most of them continued doing whatever they were doing. It was only a visiting teacher from the Cap-de-Ville ECCE who looked at me and said, ‘Kimaya climbed a cupboard and it fell on her and cut off her fingers.’
“At that time I needed to see some care or hear someone saying, ‘Lord, we’re sorry,’ but raw, just like that, they handed us a plastic bag with two pieces of fingers and a nail,” Samuel said.
She questioned whether the children were being supervised, noting that although staff said they were all there Kimaya was able to climb onto a cabinet. She said although Kimaya was losing blood when they arrived, staff at the centre said they could not have taken her to the hospital.
“My grandchild could have died. I want to know whether these people are even trained to deal with children. Something is totally wrong and it is as if they are blaming the child.”
Woman Sgt Paul of the Point Fortin Police Station is also investigating.