Dubai: The electronic attendance system on the school bus used by the alleged sexual assault victim shows no record of the time of her drop-off, Gulf News has learnt.
The system was flawed and having teething problems, a spokesperson for the transport provider revealed yesterday.
On November 11 — the day the four-year-old Modern High School pupil was allegedly sexually assaulted by three men on her school bus before being dropped off near her home in Karama — 30 pupils boarded bus number 1. Only 15 pupils were scanned out of the bus, according to a spokesperson for School Transport Service (STS), the transport provider for GEMS schools.
Explaining the reason, the spokesman, said: "We introduced the electronic student attendance entry and exit system on the buses in September last year. We are still facing teething problems and those are being dealt with".
Unfortunately, the victim did not have her ID card on her that day and was not scanned out of the bus, he said. The kindergartener's home is the last stop on the route of the bus, which transports children from kindergarten to Grade 4.
Sometimes the scans of the ID cards, which were bar-coded, were not recorded, he added. "In accordance with Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) regulations, school bus drivers are issued yearly licence after they undergo medical check-up, and their police clearance and traffic black points are checked," he said. "There were no red flags in the records of all three of the accused."
In a press release on Wednesday, GEMS said that they would immediately begin the process of hiring 700 women attendants.
"We understand that no system is fool-proof, whether we employ female attendants or install CCTV's. But we want to make sure that we take every measure possible," he said, urging parents to present their suggestions.
School employees sometimes did offer chocolates given to them by other children on their birthdays for instance, but now the school had strictly instructed them to refrain from doing so, he added. Bus curtains would also be kept open during winter.
"Based on comments from the parents, we are in the process of adopting several measures such as deploying female attendants and student monitors in each bus," he said. While management searched for the 700 women attendants needed, female teachers and assistants had been asked by GEMS to remain on the bus until the last child was dropped off, he said.
STS transports about 45,000 pupils every day including 44,000 GEMS pupils and this was the first complaint of this sort, he said.
NOVEMBER 11, 2010
10.15am – School bus started from Modern High School located in Nad Al Sheba to Karama, where the alleged victim lives
10.42am to 10.54am – 15 students were dropped off, according to the electronic attendance system
- No record on drop-off of the remaining 15 students who were in the bus
- Alleged victim had no ID card on her and so she was not scanned out
11am – the bus started the return journey to the school
- No anomalies in the GPS records, no deviation of routes, no abnormal stops according to STS and school records
MEASURES BEING TAKEN BY GEMS
- CCTV
- Global positioning system GPS (installed)
- Electronic attendance (already installed)
- Female attendants
- Rotation of bus drivers and conductors
- Bus drivers and attendants forbidden from presenting any eatables such as chocolates to children
