Five detained in connection with Cambridge school drowning incident

AMMAN — Amman Attorney General Tareq Shukeirat on Sunday ordered the detention of five people from Cambridge High School in connection with the death of a seven-year-old student last month.

The girl drowned in the private school’s pool while swimming with her peers.

“The detained are the school’s owner, former principal, pool guard and two sports teachers,” Shukeirat told The Jordan Times over the phone, noting that they face charges of “causing the death of the student”.

The detainees will remain in custody for one week pending investigations, according to the attorney general.

Last month, the high school terminated the services of its principal, Diana Afranji, upon a request from the Education Ministry.

However, the ministry underlined that the decision had nothing to do with the incident, but was the result of complaints filed against her.

In previous remarks to The Jordan Times, Farid Khatib, head of the ministry’s private education department, said the school had not obtained the required approval for extracurricular activities, and the pool, which is now closed, was not licensed.

Khatib noted that the Civil Defence Department notified the school several times between the years 2006 and 2012 of the need to submit the pool’s blueprint in order to meet required safety measures for licensing purposes.

The death of the student prompted the Education Ministry to form a committee that includes members of its private education and legal affairs departments to investigate the incident, and present its report to court.

Khatib on Sunday refused to comment on the attorney general’s decision, saying that the case is now in the hands of the court.