The family of the final-year student at O’Reilly Senior High School, Edward Borketey Sackey, who was fatally stabbed by a peer on September 2, 2024, has accused the school’s teachers of negligence.
They believe that the teachers’ failure to act during the incident played a significant role in their son’s death.
The family alleges that footage of the incident shows the teachers passively observing as Edward was attacked and did nothing to help him while he was bleeding.
In an interview with GhanaWeb TV’s #SayItLoud, Nii Afotey Chiribour IV, the family head, condemned the teachers for their inaction, arguing that their failure to intervene or assist while Edward was in distress makes them responsible for his death.
“There were more than 15 vehicles of the teachers parked at the school while the incident was happening. The child was stabbed right in front of them. The boy was lying right in front of them, but they did nothing. The boy was lying there and bleeding. By the time he was taken to the hospital, he had bled out and was pronounced dead upon arriving at the hospital.
“If they (the teachers) had rushed him to the hospital earlier, he would have survived. The boy was running to them for them to save him from his aggressor, but they didn’t come to his aid and watched on as he was being stabbed in front of them,” he told GhanaWeb’s Ishmael Batoma in the Ga dialect.
Nii Chiribour IV revealed that his children were on the verge of attacking the teachers after viewing the footage of the incident.
However, following hours of his pleas to avoid taking matters into their own hands, they eventually left the school.
“They (the teachers) are the ones who killed my child. So, my sons were coming to beat them up and kill them. I was very angry, but I had to stop them because if I had let them, we would have been breaking the law since the police were already involved. So, I calmed them down and told them that they would be arrested if they touched the teachers. I begged them not to do anything and allow the police to do their job—it took 2 hours to calm them down. Because I was their father, they respected me and left the school,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has announced that it will conduct an investigation into the stabbing incident.