SL: No country for children and youth

CLASSROOMS are becoming a dangerous place for Sri Lankan students, be they in international, private, or Government schools or State universities. In the past few months, the country has seen several high profile suicides by students due to sexual abuse, mental harassment, ragging, and these are just the ones that have got publicised widely while there are others who have taken their own lives or fallen into depression and suffer from serious mental breakdowns silently.

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A few months ago, a student from an international school in Colombo took the extreme step of jumping off the Lotus Tower building. She was a close friend of two other students who had taken their lives some weeks earlier, also by jumping off a high rise building in Colombo. What drove the girl to take her own life was the cruelty of teachers and fellow students who blamed her for the extreme step taken by her fellow classmates and drove her to her death. The teachers showed no empathy for a child who was already traumatised by the deaths of her friends pushing her to take the extreme step.

A student at the Sabaragamuwa University took his life last week, unable to bear the severe ragging he was subjected to by his seniors. Ragging is the worst malady afflicting State universities.

Then there is the unfolding story of the suicide by a school girl in Kotahena recently, with her parents alleging that she had been driven to the extreme step after being cornered and humiliated over an incident of sexual abuse at her former school in Bambalapitiya at the hands of a teacher.