Nour Al Samman (a 12 years girl in the American school/Syria) died in Palmyra after falling from trunk of a car (a Mazda pickup) during the tourist trip organized by the school to Palmyra and Baditha for three days. According to “SANA”, quoting police “incident occurred at about one o’clock on Thursday afternoon when the students return to visit the protected natural Talila / 40 / km east of Palmyra” the student have been distributed into two pick-up cars and were sitting alone in the trunk of the car which is normally used to transport sheep and fodder.

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supervisors where sitting beside the driver in the first car, when Nour Ahmed Samman, fall from the open trunk of the second car when the non-certificated minor driver suddenly stopped after he received a phone call from the supervisors asking him to search for a hat that fall from a child in the first car. he stopped and returned back by car and hit the girl after she fall, that led to the fracture of the skull by the impact on the head and led to her tragic death. she was dragged ten meters on the road.

Going back to the sources of the Ministry of Education show that the American School in Damascus is not licensed according to Special Education Law and contrary to accept Syrian students. in addition to that it could not get approval for the trip therefore, the school administration is fully responsibility for this incident due to the actions taken and precautions required for the safety of students and security.

One month prior to the accident Mr and Mrs Samman received a letter from the Damascus Community School (DCS), asking there permission to send there daughter Nour on a trip to Palmyra for the sixth grade children, they refused to give the approval first. then after ten days later they received a phone call from the secretary of Mr. Michael Kent the director of the school informing that Mr. Kent would like to see them in his office.
the meeting with Kent, and the two supervisors Eric Lyman and Katie Boe,  was about the trip, they asked Sammans why they didn’t agree to send there daughter to the trip. so Mr.Samman explained to them that he never let his daughter sleep outside her home and reminded them that one month ago, the school had arranged an overnight stay for the children on the field of the school which Nour didn’t go to, so how can they leave her to sleep for two nights, hundreds of miles away from them?

Mr.Kent and the supervisors assured Mr and Mrs Samman that they will be taking all the precautions to keep the children safe and also strictly assured  that  no harm will happen to any of them as they will be accompanied by the two supervisors at all times.
Ahmad Samman (Nour’s Father) asked the director about the name of the hotel they have booked for the children and he said that they will be sleeping out in a tent in a specially chosen place in the desert with the two supervisors. He assured that the quality and safety will be better than any hotel. They were fully confident that everything would be fine.
After a very long discussion, the parents agreed to send there daughter to the trip but the mother wanted to go with her. However, Ms. Katie Boe said last year a mother of one girl attended the trip and after she arrived to Palmyra, she found everything was well organized so she returned back to Damascus, and the mother has three other children to look after at home she agreed not to go.

On Wednesday May the 17th at 8:30 pm, Nour called her father from her cell-phone crying and complaining after the supervisors had left her with a few other children alone and they lost their way for few hours in the desert with one Bedouin and a camel.
the father her if she wants him to come to pick her up back home.  She said it is not necessary as they are safe now in the tent.
she was not allowed to talk more than five minutes and has to switch off her mobile phone immediately.

on Thursday 17th of May around 1:00 pm the parents received a phone call from the school asking them to come to school urgently. they were there in short period of time and waited around 20 minutes until Mr. Kent let them into his office.
The parents were so worried when Kent  told them that Nour has had an accident as she fell down from a pick-up truck.
Mr Samman was shocked and asked  “Have you put the children in a pick-up truck!?”
He replied, “She died.” without taking the effort to break the bad news.
When they heard that, the parents immediately collapsed on the floor when Kent asked  the security guards to throw them out of the school instead calming them down.

it was possible for Kent to ask Mr. Samman’s brother to pass the bad news in a way that has a little humanity. as of he has a child in the same school.

They destroyed our family, Mr Samman Said. her mother asked the supervisors to join trip but they refused and claimed that there is no enough space in the bus for her.

Putting children in a pick-up truck which is not suitable for animals!
They cheaply used a pick up trucks instead of a mini buses.
The children were crowded in two pick-up trucks, and Nour was in the second one, there wasn’t any supervisor or any other adult to protect them from the uneven roads of the desert. Instead, the supervisors were sitting in the first pick up beside the driver and of course they fastened there seat belts to be sure that they are safe and without caring about the children! ” the police in the USA fine you if you don’t fasten your seatbelt” so the parents thought they would do the same thing in this “American” school, instead they of that put them in a truck that isn’t even suitable for animals!
To complete the mess, they didn’t bother to check that the pick up driver they choose was a qualified driver.  after the accident the police found out that he doesn’t even hold a driving license.

Due to this lack of basic concepts of children safety, Nour had dropped out of the pick up truck which caused a significant fracture in the base of the skull and caused immediate death.

This trip was badly arranged from the very beginning and until the tragedy of Nour’s death took place.

the Damascus Community School (the American School) is fully responsible for the death of the 12 years old Nour Al Samman !!

The local government didn’t arrested the supervisors even after the prosecutor issued an arrest warrant.

The American embassy in Damascus said that the school is not under there supervision, while Mr. Stephan A.Seche happen to be the chairman of the school and the person in charge of affairs in the embassy in the same time !!