KANNUR: The lone lower primary school and the children there were the pride of the little known village of Perumannu. Unlike the children of many other village schools, the children her were a highly disciplined lot.
The children of the Sreenarayana Vilasam L.P. School move along the road keeping a line and always take care to be on the right side while going to school and while returning. Ironically, it was this habbit of following the road rules that resulted in taking the toll to nine as killer-van knocked them down on Thursday evening.
The Headmistress of the school Vanitha of Pinarayi was too shocked to speak any thing. Vanitha who couldn’t explain anything relating to what happened to the children of the school is now undergoing treatment at the AKG Hospital. Said Jancy, a teacher of the school, “The school which has a total student strength of 162 has never witnessed such a tragedy in the past. Often there may not be many vehicles on the road at Perumannu especially during the evenings when the students leave the school. There is virtually no child who comes to the school in a vehicle. Naturally, a road accident was the last thing we expect to happen to our children”.
Shabeer Ahamed, a member of the management committee of the school, virtually broke down as he explained how the children met with the tragedy.
Parents of the children were mostly agricultural labourers, drivers and those who make a living doing odd jobs. The school had not suffered a tragedy of this magnitude in the 55 years of its history, he said. None of the parents of the nine children met with the tragedy were able to speak a word. Meanwhile the bodies of the six children were taken to the Pariyaram Medical college hospital for postmortem. The bodies will be taken to the school premises on Friday morning ,according to the school authorities.