JAIPUR: Nine days after a nine-year-old girl died after falling from a fourth-floor parapet at Neerja Modi School in Jaipur, an audio recording of her emotional plea to her mother has raised disturbing questions about the school's alleged inaction against bullying.
In the one year-old recording, the child can be heard sobbing and begging her mother to not send her back to school, pleading to be enrolled elsewhere. "I don't want to go to school. Please don't send me," she said through tears, a chilling echo of the ordeal her family now says was ignored for over a year.
The girl died on Nov 1 after falling off a fourth-floor parapet inside the school. Since then, the police and education department have launched separate investigations, but the family alleges both are progressing at a painfully slow pace.
Her uncle, Sahil Dev, told TOI Sunday that the audio was recorded in July last year. "She was facing constant bullying for over a year. We informed her class teacher about it, but she didn't pay attention," he said, adding that the family even tried to move her to another school, but that didn't materialise.
Dev said the family was shocked by the attitude of the investigating officials. "One member of the education department's probe team even remarked, ‘Why did the girl celebrate Halloween?' — a completely irrelevant and insensitive comment," he said.
He added that one of the teachers admitted to investigators that the child was bullied inside the school. "Even after this, no action has been taken. Nine days have passed," Dev said. He also said the family repeatedly told school authorities that some students of her class were tormenting her, but the school chose to turn a blind eye.
The family claimed they approached two class teachers in the past to raise concerns about the bullying from other students, but their pleas went unheard.