Student drowns on school trip
A 19-year-old senior high school student drowned yesterday in a hotel pool during a five-day school trip to Corfu, western Greece. Erai Karahussein drowned after jumping in to save another student who was calling out for help when the teenagers went for a dip at around 4 a.m. His schoolmate, who later admitted to police that his claims of drowning were intended to be a joke. The body was pulled out by a teacher and hotel security guard who were called to help the drowning student. Karahussein was part of a group of 18 students from a technical high school in Xanthi, northeastern Greece, that reached the hotel late on Monday. Press reports said that the students had been drinking earlier in the evening during an outing. Police have arrested the hotel owner and charged her with manslaughter through negligence. She was not named. In response to the news, Deputy Education Minister Giorgos Kalos said the government will re-examine the law dictating the conditions that must be met during student trips. Teachers said that the laws on the number of educators escorting students need to be tightened to avoid a repeat of such incidents. The State High School Teachers’ Federation (OLME) believes one teacher should be assigned to every 10 pupils. Currently the law specifies that one teacher is designated for every 40 students. One high school teacher told Kathimerini that he avoids accompanying students on the annual trips as teenagers are difficult to control. «The students who go on these trips are difficult to control. We either stop the trips or limit them to a few days of visiting museums while completely cutting out entertainment in the evening,» the teacher said. Many senior high schools from around Greece go on three- or five-day trips at this time of the year. Experts estimate the value of the end-of-year student holiday period to be worth around 50 million euros annually.
