CoI hears govt supported former teacher, family after Mahdia fire ordeal

Standing before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the deadly May 21 Mahdia female dormitory fire, Amanda Peters-Nedd testified of the government’s support to her family following the fatal ordeal.

Peters-Nedd, who served as the head of the English department at the Mahdia Secondary School said financial and psychological aid was provided to her 19-year-old son, Derick Nedd Jr, and her husband, Derick Nedd.

According to Peters-Nedd, while her son who was a math teacher at the school was admitted as a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), she was given free accommodation at a hotel, an expense that was paid by the government. 

“He had a complete body shut down. They had to medivac him out of Mahdia to Georgetown where he spent an entire week…I was accommodated in a hotel while my son was in the hospital,” the emotional mother told the CoI.

Peters-Nedd revealed that her son is still receiving counselling from the hospital’s psychiatric clinic, another medium of support by the government.

The woman noted that eight of the students who died were from her son’s class.

Additionally, when asked about other support from the government, Peters-Nedd replied, “The minister would have given us some money the day when he was medivac out from Mahdia.”

Peters-Nedd had volunteered to go to Mahdia with a few of her family members to take up her then-new position since there was a shortage of trained teachers in the area.

Her husband was one of the housefathers at the dorm. He is also still receiving counselling from a psychiatrist at the GPHC along with his son.