Treatment plan

The main plan:

My original news story is based on the death of Nassar Ahmed, the boy who died because of his illness and being in detention. My aim was to explore what could be the reasons for his death, and how people are coping with the death of their loved one.

A backdrop on the story:

There was a fight between two boys within the school. Nassar Ahmed was walking by and accidentally tripped over a bin, knowing the bin down. The teacher who witnessed this put him in detention because he thought Nassar did this act intentionally. Despite the CCTV footage of Nassar crying and begging his teacher that he is sorry, the teacher went ahead with the detention that he gave him.  The detention was in the basement and apparently extended – my mission is to find out more details and the truth behind this story. A phone call went home to Nassar’s parents saying that the detention is over and his son has collapsed. His father went to the school straight away and sees him collapsed on the floor with many ambulances and doctors trying to carry him to the ambulance. Shortly after, Nassar was pronounced dead.

The reasons to his death could have been the teacher who put him in detention; he could have been showing racial dislike or Iislamophobia. It could have been the place that the detention was held – the basement. Was the basement’s conditions dirty/dusty/bad? Was Nassar being supervised and watched over? If so, who was it? & why didn’t they take immediate action when Nassar was breaking down? Was it due to his illness? What if he didn’t get a detention?

I was planning to interview a lawyer to get his/her viewpoint on the situation and if the school is held accountable.

Interviewing his friends and family will help to reach my aim of finding out how people cope with the loss of a loved one.

Contingency plan:

The impact of detentions – do they really work?

If I can’t manage to do the original story I was planning to do, then my back up story would be if detention really had an impact on people; education and students. My aim would be to answer the following questions:

Do detentions really have an impact on students?

Does it help them perform better at school and exams?

Does it increase the grades of a student?

Do teachers benefit from this some way or do they just want to go home too?

Do detentions shape the way students behave inside and outside the classrooms?

I would plan to interview the same lawyer I was planning to interview for my original story and ask him what his viewpoint is.

I would interview some teachers and also some students to see their opinions and viewpoints.