It’s confirmed. Twelve-year-old, Latoya Temilton drowned during an unsupervised one-day school excursion on 20 January 2024 at the Wag ‘n Bietjie Resort in Witkoppen, Olifantsfontein.
This was revealed during a media briefing held by the Gauteng Department of Education, where Ntshupetsang Attorneys, who were tasked to investigate the death of the Laerskool Queenswood learner, unpacked the findings of their investigations.
Meshack Nchupetsang, who represented the law firm said that although the school submitted a request for the excursion, they were not aware of the framework of a one-day excursion. They’ve recommended that the principal, together with other educators who were involved, be charged for not following the right procedures. Amongst other findings, the school did not give parents enough time to disclose important information about their children.
“There was no prior inspection of the pool to ascertain the presence and adequate of safety measures aimed at mitigating the evident risk of drowning. This signifies a neglect in due diligence and precautionary measures. During our investigations, we found that the parents of the learners were given indemnity forms on the day of the excursion. This was done right at the doorstep of the bus. In risk mitigation, we found that the indemnity forms could have been provided earlier to afford the parents an opportunity to disclose important and relevant information, for an example in this particular case parents could have indicated that Latoya could not swim,” Nchupetsang said.
The findings have however also found an element of possible negligence from the family. They said that it was the family’s responsibility to disclose to the school that Temilton could not swim.
Temilton family representative, Gordon Temilton said that they are saddened by the passing of their daughter and hope that no learner should fall victim to a similar incident. Although they had already conducted their private investigation, they expressed gratitude to the Gauteng Department of Education for the effort to assist to get to the bottom of the cause of their daughter’s death.
“The fact is Latoya Temilton will not return, her life is lost and the pain that her mother endures can not be measured. The family will scrutinize every single word detailed in the report. As soon as you go to the place, you will see at the entry of the pool area there is a massive sign in bold that says ‘Safety first, no lifeguard provided’,” Temilton said.
Gauteng Education MEC, Matome Chiloane concluded that the department’s legal team has started with the recommendations of holding the school accountable.