This one I've been eying for progressive reports on the recent incident occured in my hometown. This is a tragic event that up to now shocked the local educational institutions and parents most specially.
On July 20, according to the statement, she joined the search for the Lady and Lord of Utopia, an annual beauty pageant organized by the Guild of English Students. At around 7:15 that evening, in front of several hundred students, her costume caught fire from a candle used as props along the catwalk. She was rushed to the Mindanao Burn Center of the Davao Medical Center (DMC) and was admitted with third degree burns. She died on July 23.
More of that stories here and here.
I am angry at the event organizers who failed to follow certain standards that should have prevented this painful event. Just plain common sense ae! In the days to come, I strongly suggest a SECURITY & SAFETY COMMITTEE made of parents and students be present in all school activities for the safety of our children. They would play an important role in every minute an activity is held. They would have seen that there was no fire extinguishers present within the building. They even would have seen the risk the talent presentations during a review of safety procedures.
In a statement e-mailed to Sun.Star Thursday, the university's Obrero Campus Student Council (OCSC) insisted that Sarate was a victim to "the deteriorating situation of the country's state universities and colleges (SUCs), as with the University of Southeastern Philippines."
"(The incident) is a sad picture of state colleges and universities in the country that students have long endured -- the kind of state neglect and abandonment due to the national government's less prioritization of education," OCSC president Alfe Keith Apalit said in the statement.
-- There we go again blaming the government for a mistake that we should have foreseen in the first place. At the scale of the occasion, who would have expected that this thing would happen. I am angry at the organizers who should have paid a little attention to details from assessing talent presentations, stage management to personnel security. Pointing fingers at anyone at this time will do no good to anybody.
To our school authorities, truly this is an eye opener. I too have growing daughters who will one day attend school and it scares me a lot anything could happen to them inside a school where supposedly maximum safety is a priority in all areas of their educational life.
I share sympathy and prayers to the family of the lass who surely right now is in the middle of confusion and anguish over the loss of a beloved daughter, sister and a friend.
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