Assam: When a classroom debate snowballs into a big issue

A Correspondent

DIGBOI: Sensation grips Digboi Oil town following the unhealthy development at Delhi Public School, Digboi, involving a seventh-grade girl student running off the second floor here on Saturday morning at around 8.30 am.

The student, who went unconscious and sustained multiple fractures, was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital and later referred to a tea garden hospital at Chabua in Dibrugarh the same day.

Demanding an immediate probe into the incident, one of the legal guardians who didn’t wish to be quoted said that his ward has been undergoing a traumatic situation in the school since May 7 after an altercation with one of her classmates.

‘Such debates, altercations, and petty misunderstandings among the students in the classroom are natural phenomena in this age group, but what effective and preventive counselling measures the teachers adopt matters a lot,’ said the guardian.

The guardian, while speaking to The Sentinel, alleged that instead of informing them, the school authority started torturing her in the school until May 24, and that might have compelled her to take the undesirable step on May 25 morning when the class was about to start.

“Why should the school authority conceal the matter even after receiving a formal complaint from the other guardian, who happens to be a retired army official?” wondered one of the parents of the victim student, adding that ‘we were kept in total darkness about the incident that had occurred on May 7’.

‘When I demanded the CCTV footage from the school authority and demanded an immediate probe from the AOD (Assam Oil Division) Managed School Management Committee, a school teacher begged an apology for the incident on the phone,’ claimed one of the parents.

Terming the incident as the result of ‘gross negligence’ and the indifferent attitude of the teacher concerned, the guardian added, ‘Our child, who has been at the ICU and has gained her sense this morning, has been repeatedly pleading with the parents not to send her back to DPS Digboi’.

The agonised parents, while sharing her health status, said that there were multiple fractures and internal bleeding continued, coupled with vomiting.

‘Having received a complaint from one side, the teachers, instead of bringing in reconciliation, should not have taken a hasty step to administer justice in an arbitrary manner amounting to mental torture,’ said an AOD official, who also happens to be one of the guardians.

According to AOD sources, the local management committee of the school, headed by Executive Director Assam Oil Division as the Pro Vice Chairman, has ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Also Read: Assam: Inter district teachers’ debate held in Sivasagar (sentinelassam.com)

Also Watch: