Jaipur school gets CBSE notice over 9-year-old's suicide, probe points to inaction

The CBSE issued a show-cause notice to the Neerja Modi School in Jaipur, where a 9-year-old girl studying in Class 4 recently died by sucide.

The enquiry panel by the board said it was clear that the school did not take any preventive and proactive action on the repeated complaints of bullying and teasing by the classmates. It said that the student was bullied in her classroom for 18 months until the day of her death, including classmates using “bad words” and the school failing to maintain a healthy atmosphere,

The panel found that students were not wearing ID cards so it took time to establish the identity of the student to communicate to the parent. “The spot of fall was washed that was to be kept intact for forensic analysis. School must have safety steel nets on higher floors to avoid accidents,” the panel said.

“The conversation and communications made by the parents to the class teacher and the school management went unheard. The School did not take any action and had no compliance and provisions for grievance redressal mechanism in such circumstances. The deceased child and the other students were never presented before the counselor. The committee in its report has also concluded that it seems something unusual happened in class and she is looking extremely disturbed,” the report said.

The report said that it appears that the school failed to maintain a healthy atmosphere in the school and there were no specific and required measures to tackle such incidents of bullying.