Light fitting crashed on to pupils’ desk 6/6/14
Pupils avoided potential injury after a light fitting smashed onto a classroom desk.
The children who should have been sitting round the table were at assembly at the time otherwise they would have been in the firing line.
The perspex light cover shattered after crashing down from the ceiling at Castlebay Primary School on Thursday.
Normally, youngsters would have been sitting underneath the light.
The classroom was taken out of use and pupils shifted elsewhere within the school.
A Western Isles Council has now launched an investigation to “establish the full circumstances.”
A council spokesman said: “A perspex cover fell down in a classroom. No children
were present at the time and no-
“As a precautionary measure, the primary-
“A contractor was called in to fix the light and to check all other similar lights in the primary department.
“Following the necessary checks, the school is now operating as normal.”
Local councillor Donald Manford is concerned about the incident.
He said: “It is immensely fortunate that nobody was hurt and I will ask for a thorough investigation into the circumstances.”
The incident follows potentially dangerous problems at certain island schools last year.
Three windows crashed to the floor below at Point and Balivanich schools. Safety screens were then installed over a number of suspect windows to try and prevent pupils from being injured in any repeat incident.
Later, six potentially unsafe glazing units were replaced at Balivanich -
At the time, education bosses insisted the new £29 million, newly opened Nicolson Institute, the islands biggest school, was “unaffected.” They reassured parents there were no plans to inspect windows at the Nicolson as they were a different design.
Soon afterwards, that position completely changed when safety checks on around 100 roof windows at the Nicolson were ordered. Screens or “temporary protection works” were installed as a “proactive measure” before the survey.