NEW DELHI: The murder of a seven-year-old Gurgaon schoolboy may have triggered outrage among parents concerned about the safety of children on campuses, but schools in Delhi say it is a one-off case and and should not be "generalised".
"It is one unfortunate but serious lapse which needs to be investigated but schools generally have strict measures in place to ensure safety of children. Outsiders are not allowed, students can't go outside, these are general practices. Whether an outsider was involved (in the Gurgaon case) or someone who was already inside is a matter of investigation.
"Generalising the opinion that schools do not have enough safety measures in place would be unfair," said a member of the National Progressive Schools' Conference, an association of over 1,000 private schools in the national capital.
Greenfields Public School's Pratigya Mehta said, "There are already laid down rules, we as human beings also would not let any kid's safety be comprised but accidents like this should be taken as lessons to be extra careful."
"How did somebody take a knife inside? There should be some measures to scan pointed objects which can be harmful to anybody? Installation of CCTVs is also another measure. It is an accident but there has to be an explanation about what happened and how?" said Ashok Agarwal of All India Parent's Association (AIPA).
Seven-year-old Pradhuman Thakur, a Class 2 student of Ryan International School in Sohna area, was found with his throat slit in a washroom in the school building around 8.30 am.
While the boy's father accused the school administration of negligence, hundreds of parents and locals gathered outside the school and protested against the school management.