DA, a female student from 12A2 Class, was severely injured with level-3 burns.

Several 12th graders at Phan Dinh Phung High School accidentally caused an explosion that injured three students. DA, a female student from 12A2 Class, was severely injured with level-3 burns.

The accident has raised concerns about the safety of chemistry lessons and practice hours at schools.

The chemistry teacher was absent during the lesson. Only one month after the accident occurred did the public hear about the case.

And only when DA wrote about the accident on her Facebook page did Phan Dinh Phung School’s management decide to discipline the students involved.

Hanoi’s Mayor Nguyen Duc Chung in mid-February asked the Hanoi Education Department to explain the tardiness in dealing with the case.

On her Facebook, Pham Huyen, DA’s aunt, commented that if the school’s board of management had dealt with the case soon, DA would not have been hurt so seriously.

DA family’s members said that on February 6, or one day after DA wrote about the accident with her on Facebook, the school’s board of management sent a dispatch  to agencies asking them not to report about the case in the media.

Meanwhile, DA experienced difficult days and wanted to give up everything. The girl, who has been preparing for the university entrance exams for a long time, may not be able to attend the exam.

DA’s relatives have expressed their dissatisfaction about the way the school dealt with the case.

Huyen said no serious meeting was organized after the accident occurred to review the case and discipline individuals. No information about the case was released to the school’s students, while the students in the adjacent classroom said they had not heard about it.

She commented on her Facebook that the cowardice of the people who have to take responsibility for the accident shows problems in teachers’ morality. 

“They wanted to turn students into false people,” she wrote.

According to Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, a VietNamNet reader, the improper reactions by the school’s board of management shows a that there is no standard risk management procedure.

Because of the lack of procedure, if something happens, teachers, school management board and students will negotiate on how to settle the cases, instead of dealing with the cases in accordance with standard procedures.

Le Ha