Last update - 00:00 13/12/2006
Education Minister in Katzrin: Teachers must always be able to account for students
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent
Schools must make sure that all teachers know where their students are during class, as the father of a girl killed at her school in Katzrin has demanded, Education Minister Yuli Tamir said during a visit to the Golan town Tuesday.
"An entire community will not rest until the murderer is found," Tamir said during a visit to the girl's parents, whose seven-day traditional mourning period ends Wednesday, exactly a week after Tair Rada, 13, was found murdered in the bathroom of her high school.
"They won't give up here - we have to clarify who did this," Tamir said. "The life of this city depends on the discovery. This incident will not be set aside until it is solved."
"This is a shocking incident," she added. "We never imagined that a girl would be murdered in school."
There are no current suspects in the murder, and police officers continued to speak to students Tuesday in an effort to figure out just what happened.
"The police can do a lot," the victim's parents, Shmuel and Ilana Rada, said during their conversation with Tamir. "A fortune was invested into the search for [escaped and recaptured serial rapist] Benny Sela."
He also said there should have been a roll call taken at the beginning of class, and asked Tamir to pressure the police to do everything they can to solve the murder.
"Tair went out and didn't return to the next class, and they didn't check it out," he said. "They lock the door and Tair's bag is thrown in the classroom. If someone had cared, he would have asked whose bag is it is. Tair doesn't leave her bag and disappear ... There were failures that could have saved the girl's life."
Tamir said Shmuel Rada's suggestion was appropriate, and that each teacher should be required to know where students are during class. However, she rejected his complaint abut the lack of closed-circuit cameras, saying, "The inclination to demand a police officer in every school and cameras that monitor the students - that's not going to happen."
However, Tamir met with officials at the Katzrin school Tuesday, and they agreed to install security cameras there.
Tair Rada's parents complained that the security procedures in the school were being changed only after the murder. The couple reiterated their call for an inquiry committee to investigate the murder.
"The question is whether you could have prevented the murder," said Shmuel Rada. "I think so. Everyone was blind. They said 'it won't happen to me,' but it happened. It could have been prevented - you just have to open your eyes and do a housecleaning. There is crime, drugs, there is everything inside the school walls."