‘Pattern of harassment’: Parents, students protest outside school

Nearly 100 protesters - parents, students and family friends - gathered outside St Columba's School on Friday afternoon, carrying placards and demanding accountability after a 16-year-old student died by suicide earlier this week accusing four staffers of harassment.

- Gargi Shukla

Parents and fellow students held a protest outside the school in central Delhi.

(SANJEEV VERMA/HT PHOTO)

Many at the protest site expressed anger, as parents and children stepped forward to recount what they described as a pattern of humiliation and intimidation by the same three teachers and the headmistress named in the police complaint.

Some recalled students being singled out for pending fees, others described teachers who threatened to slap children or mocked them in full classrooms.

The tragedy unfolded on Tuesday afternoon, when the Class 10 student jumped from the upper level of a west Delhi Metro station. A case of abetment to suicide has since been registered after police found a note in his bag alleging sustained harassment by the four staff members.

At the protest, the boy's closest friends huddled together and recalled their frantic efforts to trace him on Tuesday. One of them said he and two others had rushed out searching for their friend after his mother called to say he had not returned home.