Nine-Year-Old Girl Dies After Jumping From School Building in Jaipur, Parents Allege 'Constant Bullying'

Jaipur, Rajasthan: A nine-year-old student from a private school in Jaipur died after jumping from the fourth floor of the school building, allegedly due to bullying. Her parents claimed that they had repeatedly informed school authorities about the bullying, teasing, and verbal abuse, but their concerns were ignored.

The incident took place on November 1 (Saturday).

A WhatsApp audio recording from a year ago indicates that the child pleading with her mother not to send her to school, saying, “I do not want to go to school.”

The parents are now seeking justice, alleging that the school’s negligence led to their daughter’s tragic death.

The parents of the nine-year-old victim spoke to Republic exclusively and said that their daughter went to the Neerja Modi School in Jaipur where the incident took place.

Recalling the day of her daughter's death, the mother of the deceased child said, “Our daughter went to school normally on Saturday. She was very happy as it was Halloween the night before. On the day of Halloween, they had a children’s party where she collected 107 chocolates. She was very happy. At night, we also did bedtime stories. She also sent WhatsApp audios to her granny. She went to sleep quite late that night, and everything was normal. In the morning, she attended her dance class. Then, she went to her school, where she told her teacher multiple times that other students were using bad words against her and disturbing her. Her classes used to take place on the ground floor, but she went to the third floor of the building and fell down from there after slipping."

The mother of the child still refuses to believe that her daughter could commit suicide.

"She was a very happy child. People are terming it suicide, but she cannot commit suicide. We were all waiting for her at home. Why would a happy girl like her commit suicide?,” she said.

Another relative of the child said, “She went to the school normally. We don’t know what led her to go to the teacher multiple times. The teacher also said to the police that our child went to her and said, ‘Some kids are using bad words, some kids are disturbing me, they are not allowing me to study.’ This was happening multiple times. Over a year, she has been raising alerts with us, and we have been raising it with the class teacher, the coordinator, and the school administration, but they did not take any action against it.”

“This year, in September, the father went to the school, and another kid started teasing Amayra by linking her to another child in the class, to which the father objected, and the kid then stopped. But Amayra was so worried and so disturbed about it that she was hiding behind her father. After that, when the father complained to the teacher, the response from the teacher was really appalling. She just said that Amayra needs to adjust with other students in class. She is very good in studies and other activities, but this is a co-ed school, and she needs to adjust with other students. These are the things which really disturbed her. We tried to change her school also, but we did not get admission where we wanted,” he further said.

The father of the child and the other relative complained that the school authorities have not contacted them since the incident and also accused the school administration of committing a criminal offence by washing off the crime scene.

"The father of the child and the other relative said, “Today is the eighth day of the incident. The school has not contacted us. No one saw how she climbed up the upper floors. There is no CCTV monitoring. The crime scene has been washed off. No action has been taken against it despite it being a criminal offence. The principal and teachers have not visited us. They have not even sent us a condolence message. Is this the kind of response you expect from somebody who is not trying to hide things? We are very disturbed by this behaviour of the school administration," they said.

The school administration is yet to issue a formal statement on the matter.