Educational institutes which were once safe havens for our children are now lacking safety and security measures and are unable to prevent unfortunate incidents from occurring.
It is barely a few weeks that the schools and colleges reopened and news about various incidents started to surface. It was about the same time last year that the fatality of a college student came as a shock to many. Such incidents add to the already existing list of extreme mishaps, most of which have occurred in the college or school premises. Most of these cases are results of arguments or spats with peers or between students and teachers. In many situations, the reason of fatality remains quite unclear.
Well, the recent fatal incidents that occurred in most schools and colleges did occur in the campus, and mostly in areas where the CCTV cameras couldn’t reach. Schools and colleges have security personnel at the entrance, who does not allow any suspicious or unauthorized person to enter the premises. But, there are no tools in place to curb the incidents that might take place due to the people or students who are a part of the educational institution.
Let us have a look at few incidents that occurred in various schools and colleges across India. It is important to note that most of these institutes do have a security system in place.
The incident occurred in February 2018, when a first-year student from Loreto College was found hanging in the washroom of the college hostel. As per the reports, the student was a native of Jamshedpur and was in the city to complete her studies. The girl, as per her friends, was worried about their studies and had locked herself in the bathroom on the night the incident occurred. The police found the girl hanging after they broke the door open.
A 17-year-old student who was living in a Bangalore hostel for more than two years was found lifeless in the bathroom. It is said that the other students got suspicious when he went to the washroom and did not return for long. When students found that the door is locked and there is no response after calling the boy’s name, they peeped through the window to find him lying on the floor, lifeless.
The incident occurred in a private school of Vadodara, where a class IX student was killed in the school’s washroom. The police also found the knife used to stab the deceased in the bathroom itself. A class X student who was the initial suspect confessed that he committed the crime to bring disgrace to the school.
A 14 year old student was founded dead in the school’s washroom, in Kodagu district of Karnataka. It is said that the boy’s father works as a sports coach in the same school and he had informed the school authorities that the boy was constantly harassed by some teachers. The plea of the father was ignored by the vice-principal. The boy’s father filed the complaint and also accused the vice-principal and a few teachers for the abuse of his son.
The incident that shook the nation occurred in a private school in Lucknow, where a Class I student was stabbed by a Class VI student. The kid was injured and was found in the school’s washroom and was rushed to the nearby hospital. As per the local police, the girl, who was studying in grade VI took the boy to the washroom, where she tied him and then started to stab him. The girl then shut him in the toilet and ran away. It is said that the girl stabbed the boy as she wanted the school to “close early” on that day.
The above mentioned are a few examples of incidents that have occurred in the bathrooms of the colleges and schools, and these are the areas that lack security or have no security at all. While it is not possible to install CCTV cameras inside the bathrooms, there arises a need to use an alert and sensor based security that can alarm the nearby personnel during suspicious situations.
For example, the security system can raise an alert or an alarm if the student is in the washroom for more than a specified time, or, when there is no movement in the student for a long duration. Alerts are also created when a boy or a girl approaches the washroom that belongs to the other gender.
Brunhild security believes in preventing the incidents and the security tools help the school or college admin to take timely action.