A 'broken bowl' hurts City Central pupil

A DAUGHTER of a Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC) official figured in a freak accident Monday when a toilet bowl inside the city's biggest elementary school broke and collapsed while she was using it.

Nine-year-old Ruth Angela Cunanan, daughter of Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC) secretary Ruth Cunanan and a grade 3 pupil at the City Central School, sustained injuries in her outer thigh due to sharp objects from the broken bowl.

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The incident happened around 8 a.m. Monday while Cunanan was responding to nature's call inside one of COPC's comfort rooms.

Cunanan may have disregarded the danger posed by a crack in the toilet bowl, noticed earlier by their classroom teacher Shirley Cabugwas, who reportedly made a warning for the kids to be extra careful in using the comfort room.

It did not take long when the 45 pupils from teacher Cabugwas' section Patient heard a loud cry from the comfort room as the toilet bowl collapsed.

There, Cunanan grimaced in pain with blood streaming down her legs.

It was such a horrifying sight, said school principal Sheryl A. Merida, that Cunanan was immediately rushed to the nearby Polymedic hospital.

A minor operation to repair her damaged thigh was immediately administered on Cunanan, who is still confined as of Wednesday.

Merida told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro that what had happened to the girl was purely an accident, wrought by the age-old facilities in most public schools.

Merida said the toilet bowls at City Central School have not been upgraded since they were built 30 years ago due to "lack of funding."

"This is the first incident of its kind that happened in our school. But I guess, this will serve as a warning that basic infrastructures must be upgraded immediately before another incident will happen," Merida said.

She, however, made an assurance that the victim's family would be aided in their hospital bills. (Nicole J. Managbanag)