Six students of an aided school at Velur near here allegedly consumed pesticide on Thursday after the school authorities asked them to report with parents over the issue of slandering teachers of the institution.
M Aravindhan, B Vignesh and S Bhuvaneshwaran, all pursuing Plus-Two Agriculture, and P Muralitharan, J Saleem and B Ranganathan of Plus Two History at the Kandaswamy Kandar Matriculation Higher Secondary School, allegedly took pesticide at the school during lunch break.
They were immediately rushed to the Velur Government Hospital, sources said, adding that their condition is stable.
The students took the extreme step when the school authorities summoned them to bring their parents after conducting an inquiry on the issue of slandering two of the staff members, representatives of the school said.
Derogatory remarks were found scribbled on the toilet wall of the school on Friday.
However, the boys contended that they tried to commit suicide as the authorities threatened to expel them from the institution.
“They threatened to expel us from the school and to make negative remarks in the transfer certificate. They did not spare us even after pleading innocence. So, we feared the worst and consumed pesticide,” Vignesh, one of the students, told reporters at the hospital.
Senior officials including Paramathi-Velur tahsildar C Rajan visited the students at the hospital and held inquiries.
The duty medical officer at the Government Hospital said their condition was stable and that no toxic agents were found in their stomach.
When contacted, school correspondent R Somasundaram said, “We held an inquiry and found that the six of them were involved in scribbling derogatory remarks against two teachers. So we asked them to bring their parents. They might have taken pesticide to avoid it.”
Tension prevailed for a few hours at the Government Hospital as parents and relatives of the students gathered on its premises.
Meanwhile, sources said that two of the boys had left the hospital without informing the doctors.