The last incident where parents of wards of KUMACA besieged the school after the mystery deaths
The number of mystery deaths involving students of Kumasi Academy, located in the heart of the Asokore-Mampong municipality in the Ashanti Regional capital, has risen to four, it has emerged.
Education authorities in the region say the latest death involved a Form One student who reportedly sneaked out of campus after being taken ill and his condition kept deteriorating.
The yet-to-be-identified male student reportedly passed on Friday at home and the news about his death was broken to management of the school on Monday, DAILY GUIDE gathered.
What killed the student is not yet known, but sources say the circumstances surrounding his death appear to be similar to those of the three students who died earlier – a development that reportedly triggered agitation by the entire student body.
Anxious parents of some students, following the incident, besieged the premises of the school to demand the immediate release of their children so that they could take them home.
Three students of the senior high school were said to have died in a similar fashion within one week after they had been sent home by the school authorities.
Gripped with fear, the students were said to have spontaneously come out of their dormitories and began to run riot, allegedly attacking the school bus and other properties before turning their attention on the Assistant Headmaster, Ernest Wiafe.
It took the timely intervention of police personnel drawn from the Manhyia Divisional Command to bring the pandemonium on the school’s campus under control.
Authorities have since allowed students who are feeling uncomfortable to stay on campus to go home, apart from the final-year students who are sitting for the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Meanwhile, the Ashanti Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service has dispelled suggestions that the students probably died of food poisoning.
Cassandra Twum-Ampofo, Public Relations Officer, said they were waiting for autopsy reports to unravel the mystery surrounding the deaths of the four students, and called on the public to exercise patience.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi