JAIPUR: A Class 4 student at a Jaipur school, who died by suicide weeks ago, had reportedly faced bullying in her classroom for over 18 months, including verbal abuse from classmates, while the school failed to maintain a safe and healthy environment, according to a CBSE enquiry report.
Following the findings, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) issued a show-cause notice to Neerja Modi School in Jaipur. The notice comes after a CBSE-formed enquiry panel investigated the tragic death of the 9-year-old girl, who reportedly jumped off the school building earlier this month.
ACP Mansarover Aditya Kakade said that an investigation in the case is underway. "The case is being investigated. No arrest has been made so far," he said.
The enquiry committee highlighted multiple lapses by the school, noting the persistent bullying the girl endured. It stated that her parents had initially reported the issue to teachers in July 2024. The panel further observed that the class teacher failed to respond to the child’s distress, despite the girl approaching the teacher five times in the last 45 minutes of her life.
"As per the statements of the parents given to the committee, it is clear that the school did not take any preventive and proactive action on the repeated complaints of bullying and teasing by the classmates. The class teacher and the school management were very well aware of the harassment and the trauma being faced by the deceased child," the board noted in the show-cause.
The board further said that the conversation and communications made by the parents to the class teacher and the school management went unheard, and accused the school of not taking any action or having any compliance and provisions for a grievance redressal mechanism in such circumstances.
Citing the enquiry committee report, the board said, " it seems something unusual happened in class and she is looking extremely disturbed. A few hot discussions among students are also observed, and it may be related to the use of bad words and some derogatory comments, as per parents' observation and video footage".
The class teacher, in her written statement, admitted that the deceased student informed her about her classmate using "bad words" for her, but the other student denied the allegations. However, other children had complained to the teacher earlier about the constant usage of "bad words" in the classroom between students, the show-cause read.
The board also noted that the school's committee and policy mechanism were entirely "non-responsive"
According to the report, the parents of the deceased reported the bullying to the teachers and coordinators more than three times over the 1.5 years, yet the anti-bullying committee never contacted the parents or intervened.
In September 2025, the father witnessed a boy bullying the girl during a PTM and complained to the class teacher, who allegedly advised that the child "should adjust," the report says.
"The school failed to maintain a healthy atmosphere and lacked specific measures to tackle bullying," the report states, adding that these were clear violations of CBSE guidelines, Supreme Court directives and NCPCR safety norms.
The Class 4 girl tragically ended her life by jumping from the school’s fourth floor on November 1. Given the gravity of the incident, a two-member CBSE committee visited the school the following day and also met with the girl’s parents.
The committee’s findings reveal a troubling pattern of harassment and neglect on that day. The girl arrived at school in a cheerful mood, but after 11 am, she became visibly upset following interactions with classmates involving a digital slate, on which some boys wrote or displayed content that embarrassed and distressed her.
CCTV footage reviewed by the committee shows the girl repeatedly asking the boys to stop and erase the content. It also confirms that she approached the class teacher five times in the final 45 minutes of her life, seeking assistance, the report states.
The report pulled up the teacher for failing to act on the child's distress, "even when she approached her five times in the final 45 minutes of her life. The teacher's admitted negligence and reported aggressive response ("shouting") directly contravenes the requirement for staff to ensure a safe, supportive environment and to act as protective caregivers," it said.
Beyond the bullying complaints, the committee identified several safety and infrastructure lapses. These include inadequate CCTV monitoring, failure to flag the child's unsupervised movement across multiple floors and the absence of floor attendants at the time of the incident.
The stairway from which the child fell had railings described as "easily scalable and unprotected," and the building allegedly had more floors than permissible under school safety guidelines, the report noted.
The report also pointed out violations of CBSE regulations, including the mandate to store CCTV footage for 15 days, non-compliance with child protection guidelines, and the school’s failure to offer psychological support despite clear signs of the child’s distress.
Parents allege ‘culture of bullying’ at private schoolSeveral parents gathered at Shaheed Smarak Saturday to protest and demand action against
Neerja ModiSchool, where 9-year-old Amaira Kumar fell to her death from the fourth floor on Nov 1. They alleged that incidents of bullying at the school were "not isolated, but rampant".
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