Ada Senior High School (SHS) experienced tragedy after a group of final year students sneaked out of campus to swim in a nearby water body, resulting in the drowning of one student.
According to reports, ten final-year students sneaked out to swim, but one is reported dead.
The remaining nine students have been suspended indefinitely.
In another development, a first-year student caught with illicit drugs has also been suspended, bringing the total number of suspended students to ten.
Students paraded and suspended publicly over Ada SHS tragedy
Sources indicate that the students left campus without permission and headed to what is believed to be the Volta River for recreational swimming.
A video circulating on social media shows the students being paraded in front of the school and formally suspended indefinitely by the headmistress, Ms. Adelaide Kiki Ocansey.
The identity of the deceased student has not yet been disclosed, but school officials confirmed he was a final-year student.
In response to the incident, the headmistress convened a disciplinary meeting and announced the dismissal of the ten students for violating school regulations and endangering lives. The school has since reiterated the importance of strict adherence to rules to avoid similar tragedies in the future.
7 Lawra SHS students drown
In a separate but equally devastating incident, seven students from Lawra Senior High School reportedly drowned in the Black Volta River near the Dikpe community in the Lawra Municipality on Saturday, June 14, 2025.
Abdul Latif Osman, the Upper West Regional Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), reported that the tragedy occurred between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. during a routine jogging session by about fifteen cadet members of the school.
Overloaded canoe capsizes mid-journey
The cadet group, according to reports, had a tradition of crossing the Black Volta River as part of their morning exercise. However, this time they used an unfamiliar route.
Osman indicated that the group spotted a young man of Burkinabe descent with a canoe on the opposite side of the river and called on him to ferry them across.
Ten of the students, along with the canoe operator, boarded the vessel—despite it being built to carry fewer than ten people. Tragically, the overloaded canoe capsized mid-journey, plunging all eleven passengers into the river.
