More than 100 parents confront school over injured child

More than 100 parents gathered outside the Petits Goujons nursery school (pictured) on Rue des Goujons in Anderlecht on Monday morning to demand that the administration explain how an accident happened that put a child into hospital.

A four-year-old boy apparently fell into a pond during a school trip to Gaasbeek Castle in nearby Lennik last week. He nearly drowned and is still in critical condition after nearly a week at Brussels University Hospital in Jette.

“We want to know the truth of the circumstances surrounding the accident,” Choukri Nour-Edding, chair of the parents’ committee, told Bruzz. “The school’s version doesn’t match what the children who were there are telling us. According to them, there were four chaperones sitting on a bench looking at their phone instead of watching the children.”

The school’s director refused to face the parents on Monday morning but said she would speak with a delegation of parents. “We want them to stop just saying that an investigation into the incident is ongoing,” said Nour-Edding. “We have long been complaining that there wasn’t enough personnel here.”

Photo courtesy guide-ecoles.be