Headmaster suspended after 4 girls end lives

CHENNAI: The headmaster of a Government Girls Higher Secondary School at Panapakkam Vellore district, Tamil Nadu, was placed under suspension on Saturday over the suicide of four students on Friday.

The girls, identiied as Sankari, Manisha, Deepa and Revathi, were found dead in a 65-feet deep well at Nangamangalam on Friday evening.

All of them were in the 11th standard and aged around 16. It is understood that a teacher had asked them to bring their parents to school for a briefing on their academic performance. The students were not sound in studies, school sources said. However, some other students say teachers had gone too far and insulted the girls in public.

Reports in the Tamil media said one of the girls had brought a cellphone to the class. It seems she was continuously harassed for that.

Police say the girls ended their lives in a suicide pact. “The preliminary investigation has revealed that the girls, all classmates and close friends, took the extreme step after their class teacher asked them to bring their parents to discuss their poor performance in the tests,” a police oficer has been quoted as saying.

Police said the four came to school on Friday on their bicycles as usual and after leaving their bags in the class, left for Nangamangalam, near Melapulam Pudur. Their classmates alerted school authorities that the four girls have gone out of school. They contacted the girls’ parents.

Teams from Kaveripakkam, Nemili and Avalur police stations were called in. The district police chiefs of Arakkonam and Ranipet led the search.

It was local people who found the bodies in the well irst. They had grown suspicious after seeing bicycles parked near the deep well. The National Disaster Force had to be called in as the well is too deep.

It took a massive effort on their part to take out the bodies.

The local villagers refused to allow the bodies to be taken to Vellore hospital until police promised action against the guilty.

The District Educational Oficer has said investigations are on among the teachers and headmistress oficially. Headmistress Ramamani and teacher Meenakshi Sundareswari were suspended.

Parents allege that teachers shaming the students is the reason for the suicide.