Principal: No signs of leptospirosis on school grounds

Check by Health Ministry turns up empty

KOTA TINGGI: Health Ministry officials have already visited Madrasah Tahfiz Al Jauhar (MTAJ), said its principal Mohammad Afdhaluddin Ismail in response to findings that a former pupil had died from leptospirosis or rat urine disease.

He said officers from the ministry, Welfare Department, police and Suhakam visited the school when Mohamad Thaqif Amin Mohd Gaddafi (pic), 11, was hospitalised.

“They did not find anything wrong with the students and did not find any signs of disease within the school compound,” he said during a press conference at the school in Kampung Lukut here.

“We will continue to cooperate with the authorities.”

On April 19, Mohamad Thaqif was warded following alleged abuse by the school’s assistant warden, who is an ex-convict.

The boy’s legs had to be amputated due to a bacterial infection, which also spread to his right arm before he died on April 26.

Mohammad Afdhaluddin said the assistant warden was still suspended.

“We hired him about nine months back as a cleaner before he was promoted as an assistant warden,” he said.

The school did not give him the right to cane the students, he added.

“The only person that has a cane in the school is me and I never use it,” Mohammad Afdhaluddin said, adding that MTAJ had 110 students between the ages of 11 and 18, as well as 13 staff members, including five teachers.

He said MTAJ would improve its standard operating procedure to avoid a repeat of what happened to Mohamad Thaqif.

“We will conduct strict vetting of new staff, and new students will have to undergo medical check-ups,” he said.

On Monday, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah announced that Mohamad Thaqif had died of leptospirosis and not from trauma or injury.

In Putrajaya, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said his ministry had forwarded the autopsy results to the police last week and would leave it to them to inform the boy’s family about his cause of death.

Dr Subramaniam was speaking to reporters at the ministry’s Hari Raya event yesterday.