The head teacher wrote in the school diary of my class one boy that I go to see her over a matter.
I inquired from him what happened in school yesterday. He told me that while playing,a 'kite' got stuck on a tree.
Him and other boys tried to hit at it to make it fall down. In the process a stone hit a car,which was parked in compound.

I planned to go and hear what the head teacher has to say. But it looks like I'll be held up in a meeting. I will call instead.

In the meantime my wife just callled me saying the owner of the car called her demanding payment for the broken car window.
I told her I will call the school immediately to speak to the head teacher.

Has anyone handled such matters concerning their children at school? What is the right thing to do? Isn't the school responsible for watching what the kids do? I don't want to take responsibility for something unnecessarilly.

I will be speaking to the teacher in the afternoon. Please advice.

In an ideal situation,you would expect the school management to warn all visitors that they park cars in the compund at their own risk.Here,risks include raining stones or UFOs.You may not have much of an otherwise other than to pay.It's part of the price you pay for being a parent.

Yombo dhier....!!

@ alphadoti

I think the best thing is to first determine where this car was parked..was it in a prohibited area or was it packed where visitors are required to park??? reasoning here is that you dont expect a player to pay for a windscreen of a car shattered by a football during a game when it is parked right next to the goal post....if the car was parked on a prohibited area which to me this would mean where the children do their playing in addition to the playing field then tell the car owner to go to hell.

In case it was in the right place,then negotiate with the owner and tell him to treat the case as an accident. In this case the owner can alert the insurance company where he has insured the car for compensation,and then you pay the excess...


NEVER TALK OF A RHINO IF THERE IS NO TREE NEAREBY - ZULU PROVERB

@zamali is probably the only parent among all who have contributed. Your child is an extension of yourself. If you smashed someone's window who would be liable?

Pay on behalf of your son but put it as a debt on his account. Let him pay the debt by doing a task you assign him apart from his regular tasks. Make sure he fully compensates for the monetary loss by putting a wage value on his labour. Next time he thinks of throwing a stone let him think of the cost as well.

Weusi wa nywele za mshtakiwa zaonyesha ujinga alio nao

@AlphaDoti - just to lend to what Obi Wan has said....on enrolment you DID pay something called caution fee? That money is meant to cover any damages occassioned by your son - now they have collected such from all the school kids and upon exit from the school,should there be no loss to property (books,window panes,chairs,etc and anything that can be damaged,the caution money is refunded - I recall looking forward to that 'boom' in high school). So I think the school shoud pay for it. If the kids were playing together,it should be born by the school as much as if kids wee playing foot ball and broke a window. Don't let them foist it on you - its their premises,if its private,there should be some form of insurance...

The problem with equality is that we desire that it be with those that have more than us rather that those that have less