The death of a five-year-old boy with autism who drowned in a pond on his first full day of school last fall was preventable, according to a Saskatchewan’s children advocate report tabled in the legislature this afternoon.
Kindergarten student Ahmedsadiq Hussein Elmmi was found unresponsive in a pond near Ecole Dundonald School on Sept. 11 after morning recess.
He was pronounced dead in hospital.
The children’s advocate investigation report found that Elmmi’s death was preventable as the five-year-old’s right to safety while receiving a public service — required by the United Nations — was not upheld.
“The advocate concludes that, by not fully mitigating the known risks to [Elmmi] when he attended recess on Sept. 11, his was a preventable death,” the report says.
Last week, Saskatchewan’s chief coroner said the death was accidental and no inquest will be held.
“The school felt confident that they had a solid safety plan in place for Ahmed's arrival at school,” the coroner’s report says.
But the children’s advocate report found the safety plan was not shared with Elmmi’s educational assistant, who was assigned to hold Elmmi’s hand for the duration of recess.
“By not fully sharing this safety plan or ample information about [Elmmi’s] special needs with the EA assigned to [Elmmi] for recess, our review found that the EA was placed in an untenable position,” the report reads.
The boy’s parents filed a lawsuit against Saskatoon Public Schools and the city on Tuesday that alleges the death was preventable and that the school board and the city were negligent.
Both the report from children’s advocate Corey O’Soup and a report from the school board state an educational assistant was assigned to hold Elmmi’s hand during recess but that Elmmi got away to go on the slide and ended up in the nearby pond.
That educational assistant is still employed with the board, according to the school board.
O’Soup said the findings do not blame the EA, but rather, the lack of “a recess safety plan” — including the staff’s neglect to put a safety vest on the child.
“If [Elmmi] had his red vest on, he would have been easily identifiable running away from the playground and into the pond. If the staff had been fully aware of the seriousness of his condition, they would have been watching out more closely for the red vest,” O’Soup told reporters.
Elmmi went to pre-kindergarten in Prince Albert before attending Ecole Dundonald School, but his records were not formally shared with the Saskatoon elementary school, according to the report.
“There was no request by the school to acquire [Elmmi’s] cumulative record from his Prince Albert School,” the report says.
“Had it done so, the Saskatoon school would have received several professional assessments that included recommendation about how to work with [Elmmi] in consideration of his special needs.”
The report found that the pre-kindergarten teacher spoke to Ecole Dundonald School staff about Elmmi’s behaviour in June 2017, such as his tendency to run toward water.
But O’Soup suggests records be more formalized and consistent, recommending that each school board create records for all children in pre-kindergarten who have special needs and that those documents are shared when students transfer schools.
The report makes a total of 11 recommendations to Ecole Dundonald School, the Ministry of Education and the Saskatoon Public School Board to prevent similar deaths.
They suggest schools improve transition policies when receiving students with special needs. Another recommendation calls for Ecole Dundonald School to better its safety measures during recess by creating a map identifying the boundary between the school playground and the city park.
The report also calls for school boards to identify external safety hazards and create plans to mitigate the hazards, and to provide that plan to the children’s advocate in one year.
