Boy died on school exchange trip

[Orangeblossom78]

I'm unsure if anyone has seen this but a boy died on a school exchange trip to Spain this week. It was in the papers nationally. He fell out of a seventh floor window. It is a shocking tragedy.

www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/20/british-child-dies-spain-falling-out-of-window-media-say

Yes, a tragedy. But what's the need to discuss on Mumsnet?

Its in the news and related to parenting @orangeblossom

Poor boy and his family 🙁
The article says he was trying to fix a blind.

Sorry OP, that was meant to be for @Thiswayorthatway

“Yes, a tragedy. But what's the need to discuss on Mumsnet?”

For one thing, to alert parents that on an exchange trip to a private home things might be very different from home.

In this country it wouldn’t be legal to build or fit a 7th floor window that could be opened far enough to fall out of.

Though I suppose he may have fallen through it, I.e broken the glass.

Very tragic . Poor, poor family.

‘But what's the need to discuss on Mumsnet?’

You could say that about any issue. Fact is, it’s a tragic event which has been reported nationally, and many MNers have school age children who are likely to go on trips.

How terrible for the family, none of us expect to wave our children off on a trip and that’s the last time we see them. There will no doubt be a thorough investigation as to exactly what happened and why

Blouseandskirt it could easily happen in this country, many non -new buildings like the incident one in the UK too

I wouldn’t say it could ‘easily’ happen in this country. I’m reminded of the story because of the incident this week of a toddler being killed falling from a London tower block.
Another tragedy.

But neither should be dismissed as something that can ‘easily’ happen. I would imagine it’s actually extremely rare that something like this can happen unless there’s an element of lack of supervision (for a small child) or other aspects.

There will no doubt be a thorough investigation as to exactly what happened and why

Yes. you would certainly hope so.

Stuff like this does happen a lot more often in Spain and other parts of Europe. Windows are often not sturdy enough - in many places they aren’t even double glazed and will open fully so if you are fiddling with blinds or shutters it’s really easy to fall out. It’s a preventible tragedy.

Christ almighty...those poor poor parents. And pity the poor bastard that had to break the news to them.

How awful for the parents. It’s unthinkable I’m in front of sky news. It’s just been announced a baby died for falling from a flat in north London. Poor baby.

"Stuff like this does happen a lot more often in Spain and other parts of Europe. Windows are often not sturdy enough" --> No, it happens more often because a much higher proportion of the population lives in blocks of flats of up to several floors, as opposed to detached houses of one or maximum 2 floors. Windows in Spain and Europe and no less "sturdy" than in the UK... certainly not the UK I lived in at least. Besides, the boy died while trying to fix a blind, nothing to do with window "sturdiness".

And the "child" was 15 years old, so not a matter of supervision either.

I wish people read the actual piece of news before starting to lay blame on completly unrelated things.