Kumasi Academy temporarily closed down following student unrest

Kumasi Academy has been temporarily closed down after students of the school, yesterday [Friday 31st March 2017] protested over what they described as the mysterious deaths of three of their colleagues.

Reports indicate that the unrest among students which has caused the damage to some school properties has seen some parents storm the school premises to take their wards home.

Speaking to Radio Ghana, the assistant headmaster of the school in charge of academics, Ernest Wiafe, has blamed the media for sensationalising the story and reporting things differently from what really transpired.

“I’m told there was a rumour going round after supper that another person has passed on and that brought a little bit of anxiety within the student body so some became a little bit agitated, some attempted moving towards the gate. They were prevented from going out by the security men and they went a little bit closer and finally decided to come back so there was some noise, just a little bit of stone throwing and this necessitated the call that we made to the police so they came with a little reinforcement from town. The situation has normalised …Unfortunately some media houses presented a completely different case that is why you see a few parents outside the gate trying to get into the school just to send their wards back home but let me confirm that our students are all safe”.

He stated that the issue has been reported to the municipal health directorate and investigations are ongoing to ascertain the actual causes of the deaths of the three students of the school.

“We have three boys in all, two Form 2 boys and a Form 1 boy. As I speak to you we don’t know the cause of the deaths, however, they did not die in the school here. These are students who fell sick reported to the sick bay and exeats were given to them to go home. Their parents took them to hospitals and unfortunately, they passed on at those health facilities. It did not happen on the same day. It happened on different days.”

“The matter has been reported to the municipal health directorate, the director has directed some of his personnel to come over to take information from the school and they want to do a follow up on the respective health facilities where students passed away and know the history and know the diagnosis done so that we can put a figure on what actually transpired” he explained.