BENGALURU: Hundreds of parents gathered and staged a protest outside the Royale Concorde International School located at Kalyan Nagar on Thursday morning, following the incident where three kids were injured when a window’s glass pane fell on them.
The worried parents demanded justice and proper safety measures at the school. Officials from the Education department have said that they will be issuing a show-cause notice to the school soon.
Following the protest, the school management has declared a holiday on Friday. Two of the three children were admitted to a private hospital and are from Classes 5 and 6. A few other students escaped with minor injuries.
When the protest became intensive and more parents started gathering, the chairman of the school and former minister L R Shivarame Gowda arrived and convinced them by assuring them of increasing the safety.
Parents conveyed their grievance to the chairman and said, “We have been complaining about the loose glass panes for the past one year but the school officials never bothered about it.” Shikha, a parent said, “They have makeshift classrooms on the terrace. What if it collapses? Next year, I am going to admit my children into another school.”
According to parents, there are several other issues too.One of them is the careless handling of children during the pick-up and drop from school. “The school buses are parked outside the school premises and the children have to walk a lot to reach the vehicle. Recently, a kid went missing. Thankfully, an outsider saw the kid, called the parents and handed over the kid to them,” mentioned Ravi, a father.Parents even mentioned about an incident where a fan collapsed in a class room.
School’s version
However, the school management dismissed all these allegations and said, it is a negative campaign against the school.The school chairman L R Shivarame Gowda, said, “The medical bills of the two hospitalised kids will be borne by the school. We will also constitute a 10-member committee where parents will be involved to address safety issues.” He mentioned that, barring this incident, other issues raised by parents are baseless.
The school authorities are suspecting the involvement of miscreants in this incident.
Speaking to Express, Rekha Vinod, principal of the school said, “We spoke to the children who were present in that class room where the glass pane fell. They said that everything was fine when they left, even the people who closed the windows confirmed this. We do not know how it happened. But we have filed a complaint so that police can investigate the matter.”
Similar incident
A day after the Royale Concorde International School misha, children at a government school in Manorayanapalya were shifted to an Anganawadi building after cracks developed on their classroom wall. School teachers said it was due to the construction of a stormwater drain in a nearby school. A police complaint has been registered against the contractor. A senior police official said, “We have called the contractor and he will do the repair work in next 24 hours.”