I have noticed that the media has subsided in its reporting of the 'forgotten' child who was left to suffer inside a bus in the seering heat after he fell asleep on the way to school.
However, I was truly shocked last week to read many letters in a newspaper condemning not only the bus driver and the school but also pointing fingers at the parents.
One reader wrote: 'Where were the parents?' and another called them 'neglectful'!
Forgive me if I seem to be taking a one-sided view on this but the parents are really not to blame at all.
It must be bad enough to read about your son's death across all the major newspapers and media establishments of the kingdom but to read about you yourself being responsible is heart-breaking in itself.
I mean how can anybody blame a parent for sending his child on school transportation and call it neglect. In this day and age, many parents wake up early in the mornings to go to work even before their children have risen to have their breakfast before school.
Eleven years ago, my own parents decided that school transportation was the best option for me and my siblings even though my dad and mum had the time and means to take us to school themselves.
They decided that at age seven, if they could instil in me a sense of independence and personal responsibility then, at the end of the day, they would have done their job. I do not believe that if other parents make the same decision it should be called 'neglect'.
To those critics I would say this 'Leave these parents alone and have compassion towards them for there is nothing in this world worse than to see your own child leave this world for good'.
I hope in my heart that this child's death brings us to a point, here in Bahrain, where we will stand and say that enough is enough. Many lives have been torn apart because of the failure of a system. To the authorities in charge, I would say: Wake up now and pay attention, wake up!
