“Collective statement of scientific associations about the physical and mental dangers of recent student poisonings”
Children and teenagers are the future builders of the country and maintaining their physical, mental and social health is considered the mission of the society and the government. On the other hand, this group is one of the vulnerable groups that need serious support in various crises.
After facing the corona crisis, which had severe negative physical, psychological, economic and social consequences for parents and students, this year we have also seen that the society is involved in a chain of social and economic crises, which will surely lead to serious damage to will be the future builders of this border and landscape, and the lasting effects of these damages will certainly not be ignored, and now that we are approaching the last days of the year, the occurrence of serial poisoning of students with the main focus on girls’ schools in several cities of the country is a cause of deep concern. And society has become serious. For whatever reason, this incident has created an atmosphere of stress, worry and fear in the society.
The scientific associations of the medical science groups that signed this letter, all of whom are concerned with the health of children and adolescents, including doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and other medical professionals, as one of the most important independent scientific groups that care for the health of all people, especially children and adolescents, and The future makers of the country consider it their most important professional task and scientific mission, while condemning these pathetic, hateful and painful events, they consider the following measures necessary to prevent the repetition of these events and reduce their damages:
1- Urgent action by the Ministry of Education to take more care of students and closely monitor conditions to ensure security and prevent the recurrence of these incidents.
2. Faster use of the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education of all its capacity and the use of specialized and sub-specialized teams to determine the medical cause of these symptoms and signs and clearly inform the society of the results.
3. Creating the necessary preparations to intervene in similar crises in schools and the necessary training for school staff regarding how to take care of the physical and mental health of students in critical situations (by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Medical Education).
4. Interventions and immediate psychological support for students and families in schools involved in the incident, especially for people prone to injury to reduce its subsequent consequences.
5. More efforts by security and law enforcement institutions to find the causes of the accident without any compromise and to inform the society of its results.
6. Avoiding coercive and violent dealings with the families of the victims who may object to the situation.
7. Creating a psychologically safe and cheerful environment for students to study away from the security atmosphere and avoid any ill-considered and unscientific actions.
We emphasize again that the chain of violent events against children and teenagers causes serious damage to their physical, mental and social health, and since the repetition of similar events in the future is not out of the question, therefore, the health of children and teenagers is a threat to those concerned about health. It will not be tolerated and acceptable in any way, and therefore the scientific associations of medical and health sciences groups, on behalf of the medical scientific community, demand the planning and planning of effective governing institutions, including the three forces, to prevent the continuation of threats and violence against children. and teenagers of the country and creating a safe and healthy educational, social and cultural environment for them.
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