UAE classrooms are becoming spaces of shared sorrow and support, as educators guide students through grief following two recent tragedies involving pupils.
The sudden death of four young Indian expat brothers in a devastating car accident in Abu Dhabi on Sunday morning has left many school communities shaken. The incident follows another tragedy still fresh in memory, the death of 17-year-old Indian student Aisha Mariam, who collapsed due to cardiac arrest with no prior medical history in Sharjah last month.
Together, the losses have reopened difficult conversations around how schools speak to children about death, absence and emotional pain.
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Referring to the latest tragedy over the weekend where four young lives were lost, Naseer Chowthodika, a Physics teacher at Arab Unity School, wrote in a Facebook post that the school community was grappling with a loss that felt both sudden and unbearable.
Reminiscing his Year 10 student, he wrote, “Yesterday, I went to his class to conduct the lesson. As I began distributing the winter examination Physics papers, I called out the students’ names one by one. When it came to his turn, I stopped. For a moment, I was unable to speak. His seat was empty. The space where he once sat, the smile that once greeted us, was no longer there. In that silence, our thoughts drifted back to the days we shared together — moments of learning, laughter, and simple joys that now feel unbearably precious. He was not just a student; he was a part of our classroom family. His presence brought life to the room, and his absence has left a void that words cannot truly fill. As teachers and as a school community, we are deeply shaken by this loss.”
Choosing words carefully
At Sharjah Indian School principal Pramod Mahajan, found himself navigating a similar moment, after 17-year-old Aisha Mariam collapsed from cardiac arrest in December 2025.
After the schools reopened following the winter break, he remembered visiting her classroom after the assembly and sitting in the chair she once occupied, reassuring her classmates in silence as much as in words.
“I spoke about it during the morning assembly, choosing my words carefully and trying to be as gentle as possible,” he said.
“After that, I went to her classroom and sat in the seat she used to occupy.
It was empty, and the children didn’t want to sit there.
I stayed in that chair for about ten minutes, just to show them that it was okay. Slowly, it helped — and soon, the students felt comfortable sitting there again.”
The quiet act was not about filling a chair, but about acknowledging an emptiness children didn’t know how to name. Mahajan later encountered one of Aisha’s classmates, still struggling to process the loss, holding on to a final shared memory.
“She told me the last time she had seen her friend was when they shared lunch together before the holidays. Moments like these stay with children,” he said.
He emphasised that there is no uniform script for grief, particularly among adolescents who may oscillate between silence and overwhelming emotion.
“Each child processes loss in their own way, and our role is to give them a safe space to talk, to cry, or simply to sit quietly without being judged,” he said.
“We listen, we reassure them, and we remind them that there is no right or wrong way to grieve.”
Counsellors at the school, he added, have been working closely with students, offering consistent emotional support as they attempt to regain a sense of normalcy.
Similarly, Dubai resident Fiza has been struggling to console her Year 9 son at Arab Unity School, where the children who died in the Sunday car crash were students. Her son was eager to see his friends on the first day back—only to learn that one of his closest friends had died.
“In the morning, their principal and a teacher came to his class and informed the students that their classmate had died in a car crash,” she told Khaleej Times earlier. “Many of the students, including my son, began crying. They were all close friends. But the school handled the situation delicately and gave a powerful speech asking the kids to pray for their deceased friend.”
From remembrance to recovery
Meanwhile, veteran educator Lisa Johnson said that the idea of school as family becomes most evident during moments of loss.
Recalling the death of a student named Hessa several years ago, she described how collective remembrance helped students begin to heal.
The Principal of American Academy for Girls (AAG) previously said, “Schools are like families; when one member suffers a loss, the entire community feels it. At AAG, we experienced this deeply when we lost a beautiful student, Hessa, to cancer several years ago.
To help students process their grief, we invited them to write messages and memories in a book about her and tie yellow ribbons with personal notes on a remembrance tree. These small, heartfelt gestures created space for healing and connection.”
Beyond symbolic acts, Johnson stressed the importance of structured emotional support. At AAG, a wellbeing triage system helps identify students in distress, pairing them with trusted adults for regular check-ins while counsellors provide both immediate and long-term care.
“Teachers receive guidance on how to respond sensitively and adjust expectations—allowing flexibility in workload, attendance, and participation. We also help classmates understand how to show care and include their peers without overwhelming them.
Periodic check-ins continue over time, especially around anniversaries or significant dates, ensuring that the student never feels forgotten or left behind. Art therapy is a powerful tool for students to express their sorrow.”
Validation is critical
For Dubai-based life coach and energy healer Girish Hemnani, the challenge lies not just in supporting grief, but in helping children understand what they are feeling in the first place. He describes grief as an unfamiliar weight that unsettles a child’s sense of safety.
“For many children, grief is a ‘nameless’ weight. When a classmate or friend passes away, they lose more than just a peer; they lose their sense of predictability in the world. As adults, we must compassionately bridge this gap by explaining that grief is the heavy physical and emotional burden we carry when someone we love is no longer with us.”
Hemnani cautioned that grief often hides behind behaviours adults may misread, making validation critical.
“It is vital to help children understand that grief is not limited to crying.
It often disguises itself as irritability, exhaustion, physical stomach aches, or deep confusion. By validating these ‘hidden’ symptoms, we prevent children from feeling that their reactions are ‘wrong’ or ‘weird.’”
He also urged schools and parents to avoid confusing euphemisms when explaining death, particularly to younger children, advocating instead for gentle honesty and reassurance.
“Ultimately, we must ensure every child knows exactly who to turn to when that ‘heavy feeling’ becomes overwhelming. Identifying ‘safe anchors’, whether a parent, a school counsellor, or a coach, early on provides the vital sense of security they need to begin healing.”
www.khaleejtimes.com (Article Sourced Website)
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