Gurgaon murder: Schools charge hefty fees but provide no security, say parents

The death of a Class 2 student of Ryan International School at Bhondsi, Gurgaon, on Friday has put the spotlight back on safety in various schools of the city.

Friday’s incident once again pointed out that though parents end up paying hefty fees to such schools, they can hardly be sure about the well-being of their children.

Over the last few years, Gurgaon schools have found themselves in the news for all the wrong reasons — molestation, firing, lewd comments and death of students. All these incidents have made parents concerned about the safety of their kids.

Smriti Chhabra, a resident of DLF Phase-2 and a parent, said, “This is shocking and we have no idea how safe our children are at school. The schools should take action to ensure safety of our children.”

Another parent, Tripti Singh, a resident of Sector 61, said, “Our children are not safe and it is sad to see no action beig taken against schools. All the facilities that the school in the city promises are just an eye wash.”

On 5 July, a class 9 student of CD International School allegedly jumped off the third floor of the school building, located in Sector 48. The victim allegedly had an argument with his parents a few days before the incident over buying a new bike.

In a separate incident, the parents of a nine-year-old girl were left horrified on May 23 after the child’s hand allegedly caught between a door at Intellitots Daycare Centre in Gurgaon and her ring finger was severed.

Earlier, in the first week of May, a 13 year-old girl student of a school in South City-1 was forced to change her school after she found that a file containing lewd comments about her was shared by some students on the local school network.

Not just injuries and mental harassment, but unexplainable deaths of their kids at schools also have left parents in the city concerned about the safety of their children. Most parents said that schools put in place a proper mechanism to check the background of their support staff.

“We have no clue about the drivers, cleaning staff, teachers and other people involved in taking care of our children at schools. Proper verification should be done by schools,” said Sangeet Kumar, a sector 30 resident.

In May last year, a Class 3 student of Ryan International School in Sector 40 was killed after being hit by a car. The incident happended after the school bus had dropped the victim on the wrong side of the road. Earlier, a six-year-old student of Ryan school in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi was found dead inside a water storage tank on the school campus on January 30, 2016.

In December 12, 2007, a 14-year old was killed inside the premises of Euro International school, Sector 45, Gurgaon after two students opened fired at him.