If you ask any parent a simple question such as, 'Name two places on Earth where your child would be safe', surely the answer would be 'Home and School'.

The greatest fear of any parent is that they should lose their child to an untimely death. Children pre-deceasing their parents is not the natural order of things.

For any parent, losing a child must be devastating beyond comprehension, but when one stops to consider the added trauma of losing an only child, then the feeling of devastation becomes beyond profound.

On Saturday, October 15th, at an extremely well-respected school in my city, a 16-year-old student attacked one of his classmates, in the classroom, with a Stanley knife. In one swift movement, the perpetrator slit the throat of his classmate leaving him to bleed to death in a matter of seconds. It has rocked this city.

What's worse is that this same perpetrator had apparently previously threatened a female classmate (with the same knife), some time ago, and the school did nothing. Had they acted, then maybe this tragic event would never have happened.

Whether by choice or design, the 'leader' of the foreign teachers at the aforementioned school, who is a Westerner himself, sent out instructions to all the foreign teachers on Saturday night, NOT to discuss this matter with the newly-arrived teachers in case it frightened them away. Instead, he concentrated on organising his 'troops' so as not to be late for the tailor on Monday morning, since being measured for their new suit was of paramount importance. He later went on to instruct those same teachers not to be late, since being late would mean they would have to walk across a part of the schoolyard where the weekly 'flag-raising ceremony' would take place. Oh, heaven forbid!

This nonchalant attitude spoke volumes. He's sending out instructions in a 'business-as-usual' manner, while his own colleagues, and students under his care, are mourning the tragic killing of an extremely popular student.

The dead students' mother was photographed on Sunday. She was lying on the ground outside the school gate surrounded by other parents who were hopelessly attempting to comfort her.

There's a collage of family photographs that have been uploaded to the internet, including a musical soundtrack that when watched and listened to, would make the eyes of even the person with the coldest heart well-up with tears.

Not only have these innocent people lost their only son, but we should also feel for the parents of the perpetrator. Their son is going to prison for a long, long time. Two completely innocent couples have lost their only child, and for what?

The one-child policy in China, although now scrapped, has created a generation of people who will one day lead this country.

Words fail me.