JAIPUR: A Class 4 student who died by suicide at a Jaipur school earlier this month had endured more than 18 months of bullying — including repeated verbal abuse from classmates — while the school failed to provide a safe environment, according to a CBSE enquiry report.
The Central Board of Secondary Education has issued a show-cause notice to Neerja Modi School after a two-member enquiry panel probed the death of the nine-year-old, who allegedly jumped from the school’s fourth floor on November 1.
ACP Mansarovar Aditya Kakade said the police investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made so far.
Repeated pleas for help went unanswered
The committee found serious lapses by the school, noting that the child’s parents had first reported bullying to teachers in July 2024. Despite this, the class teacher allegedly failed to intervene even as the girl approached her five times in the final 45 minutes of her life.
“The school did not take any preventive or proactive action on repeated complaints. The class teacher and management were fully aware of the harassment and trauma faced by the child,” the show-cause notice states. It adds that the parents’ messages and complaints were ignored, and that the school had no functional grievance redressal system in place.
According to the enquiry findings, something “unusual” occurred in the classroom shortly before the incident. Video footage showed the child visibly disturbed, with heated exchanges among students — reportedly involving bad language and derogatory comments, as noted by the parents and corroborated by CCTV clips.
The class teacher admitted in her written statement that the child complained about a classmate using “bad words,” though the accused student denied it. Other students had previously alerted the teacher about the persistent exchange of abusive language in class.
Digital slate incident preceded tragedy
The report reveals that although the girl arrived at school in a cheerful mood, she became deeply upset after 11 am when some boys allegedly wrote or displayed distressing content on a digital slate. CCTV footage shows her pleading with them to stop and erase the content.
It also confirms that she approached her teacher five separate times seeking help — but received no meaningful intervention. Instead, the teacher reportedly responded aggressively, even shouting at the child, which the panel said violated all norms requiring teachers to act as protective caregivers.
Safety failures and compliance violations
Beyond bullying, the report highlights grave security and infrastructure lapses. These include:
- Poor CCTV monitoring
- Failure to notice the child’s unsupervised movement across several floors
- Absence of floor attendants at the time of the incident
- A staircase with “easily scalable and unprotected” railings
- The building allegedly having more floors than allowed under safety norms
The committee also flagged violations of CBSE regulations, including failure to retain CCTV footage for 15 days, gaps in child-protection compliance, and lack of psychological support despite clear signs of distress.
Parents allege systemic bullying
On Saturday, several parents gathered at Shaheed Smarak to protest and demand action against the school. They claimed bullying at Neerja Modi School was “rampant, not isolated,” and described the student’s death as the result of a long-standing pattern of neglect.
