A secondary school in Brussels has left pupils and parents reeling after mistakenly announcing the death of one of its students before later admitting the information was false.
La Dernière Heure reported that the incident started with an email sent by the school on 26 June announcing the death of one of its pupils to fellow students. The pupil in question was reportedly a 5th grade student at the secondary school, making him 16 or 17 years old.
"The school is, of course, deeply shocked by this terrible news. Our thoughts are with his family, loved ones and all the pupils and teachers who knew him," read the announcement.
Barely having had time to process the news, families reportedly then received a second announcement on 8 July stating the reported death never occurred.
"Following checks carried out with the police, we have been officially informed that no death has been recorded. The terrible information that had been brought to our attention was therefore false," the school said.
The school apologised for the false announcement and explained that, upon receiving the information, it chose to communicate it quickly so that any other pupil who might have been deeply affected by "what we believed to be a tragedy" could receive immediate support.
One pupil interviewed by La Dernière Heure could not understand how such a mistake had occurred. She said that her school should have checked the information "at least three times", before making the announcement.
The school stated that it has been a victim of an "act of disinformation" that caused great distress within the community.
"This situation also serves as a reminder of the importance of carrying out every necessary verification before communicating officially. We have learned from this incident and will strengthen our procedures to ensure that such a situation cannot happen again," the statement said.
La Dernière Heure contacted the school, but it declined to provide a comment.
