Paradip, July 27: Authorities have placed a teacher of a government-run upper primary school in Jagatsinghpur district under suspension after a nine-year-old girl student was left locked inside one of the rooms after classes were over.
The girl, Shradhanjali, had a nightmarish ordeal because of negligence by the teachers. She spent nearly three hours in confinement before local residents managed to locate and rescue her.
The unsavoury incident that occurred at Raghunathjew Upper Primary School in Khambakula village under Balikuda police station jurisdiction had sparked tension in the village yesterday after the Class III student was rescued from the locked classroom.
“It’s a very unfortunate incident. It’s a reckless and irresponsible behaviour on part of schoolteachers. While a teacher has been suspended, four others have been served show-cause notices for leaving the school before the scheduled closure hour,” Jagatsinghpur collector Satya Kumar Mallick said.
When Shradhanjali didn’t reach home after school was over for the day, her family raised an alarm.
“As good luck would have it, we managed to set her free from the locked room in the nick of time. When we brought her out, she was in a state of shock. She was severely dehydrated. Anything could have happened had she remained confined in the classroom in the night,” said local resident Harihar Biswal.
Shradhanjali’s father Saroj Das said: “We desperately searched for her as she did not return home after school was over. Some children were playing cricket in a nearby playground. They heard her scream and alerted villagers, who rushed to the school and rescued my daughter.”
Angry local residents demanded stern action against the guilty teachers.
Balikuda block education officer Bijoylaxmi Dash said: “A team of officials led by deputy block education officer had inspected the school to investigate the circumstances leading to the incident. The team found veracity of the incident and held one of the teachers responsible for it. However, it happened inadvertently. Disciplinary action has been initiated today against the negligent teachers.”
