Haitian School Collapses

By Reid Hulett


This past Friday, during a children's party being held in a school in Haiti, the concrete building collapsed with a majority of the people still inside. As of today, the death toll was 94 people with at least 15o more receiving injuries. The last known survivors were pulled from the wreckage early Saturday morning, so they are not expecting to find anymore. Just today however, four more bodies were pulled from the wreckage. The U.S. and France has been helping to search new areas for more survivors using sonar, but so far have had no luck. There would have many more deaths except that the party being held there required a 50 cent donation to get in. Many of the families that had children going there could not afford that, therefore they could not enter the school.

The schools owner and builder, Fortune Augustin, turned himself in to authorities Saturday. He is being charged with involuntary manslaughter. The case is still being investigated, but he faces up to life in prison. Augustin faces these charges because there have been previous complaints concerning the safety of the building and nothing has ever been done to solve the problem. The President, Rene Prevail, said that there is a code in place already concerning safety checks on buildings. But, he said people do not follow them, and in order to get people to follow the regulations they "need political stability." So, it is apparent that the political instability in Haiti is not only causing problems within the government, but it is also endangering citizens now. Something needs to be done in order to establish a stable government, and fast.