Jaipur school suicide: CBSE probe finds student sought teacher's help 5 times in her last moments

New Delhi: A Class 4 student at a Jaipur school, who died by suicide weeks ago, was bullied in her classroom for over 18 months until the day of her death, including classmates using "bad words" and the school failing to maintain a healthy atmosphere, an enquiry report by the CBSE found.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) issued a show-cause notice to the Neerja Modi School in Jaipur after it received a report from an enquiry panel formed by it to probe the death of the 9-year-old girl who died after jumping off the school building earlier this month.

The enquiry committee pointed out several lapses on the part of the school, noting the relentless bullying faced by the girl, and mentioned that her parents had first raised the issue with teachers in July 2024. The panel observed that the class teacher failed to act on the child's distress, even when the girl approached the teacher five times in the final 45 minutes of her life.

"As per the statements of the parents given to the committee, it is clear that the school did not take any preventive and proactive action on the repeated complaints of bullying and teasing by the classmates. The class teacher and the school management were very well aware of the harassment and the trauma being faced by the deceased child," the board noted in the show-cause.

The board further said that the conversation and communications made by the parents to the class teacher and the school management went unheard, and accused the school of not taking any action or having any compliance and provisions for a grievance redressal mechanism in such circumstances.

Citing the enquiry committee report, the board said, "... it seems something unusual happened in class and she is looking extremely disturbed. A few hot discussions among students are also observed, and it may be related to the use of bad words and some derogatory comments, as per parents' observation and video footage".

The class teacher, in her written statement, admitted that the deceased student informed her about her classmate using "bad words" for her, but the other student denied the allegations. However, other children had complained to the teacher earlier about the constant usage of "bad words" in the classroom between students, the show-cause read.

The board also noted that the school's committee and policy mechanism were entirely "non-responsive".

According to the report, the parents of the deceased reported the bullying to the teachers and coordinators more than three times over the 1.5 years, yet the anti-bullying committee never contacted the parents or intervened.

In September 2025, the father witnessed a boy bullying the girl during a PTM and complained to the class teacher, who allegedly advised that the child "should adjust," the report says.

"The school failed to maintain a healthy atmosphere and lacked specific measures to tackle bullying," the report states, adding that these were clear violations of CBSE guidelines, Supreme Court directives and NCPCR safety norms.

The Class 4 girl took her own life by jumping from the fourth floor of the school on November 1. Considering the seriousness of the incident, a two-member committee of CBSE visited the school the next day. The committee also spoke to the girl's parents.

According to the committee, the events of the day show a disturbing pattern of harassment and neglect. The girl attended school in a cheerful mood. However, after 11 am, she became visibly disturbed following interactions with classmates involving a digital slate on which some boys wrote or displayed something that embarrassed and troubled her.

CCTV footage examined by the committee shows the girl repeatedly asking the boys to stop and erase the content. The footage also shows her approaching the class teacher five times in the final 45 minutes, seeking help, the report mentions.

The report pulled up the teacher for failing to act on the child's distress, "even when she approached her five times in the final 45 minutes of her life. The teacher's admitted negligence and reported aggressive response ("shouting") directly contravenes the requirement for staff to ensure a safe, supportive environment and to act as protective caregivers," it said. Beyond the bullying complaints, the committee identified several safety and infrastructure lapses. These include inadequate CCTV monitoring, failure to flag the child's unsupervised movement across multiple floors and the absence of floor attendants at the time of the incident.

The stairway from which the child fell had railings described as "easily scalable and unprotected," and the building allegedly had more floors than permissible under school safety guidelines, the report noted.

The report also highlighted violations of CBSE bye-laws requiring 15 days of CCTV audio-visual storage, non-compliance with child protection guidelines and the school's failure to provide psychological support despite visible signs of distress.