School window comes crashing down from 5th floor, 2 Nava Nalanda students injured
Times of India | 14 January 2025
12 Kolkata: Two Class 9 students at south Kolkata's Nava Nalanda School were injured on Monday morning — one of them seriously — after a portion of a sliding glass window from a fifth-floor classroom came crashing down on them as they were queuing up for assembly on the ground floor.
The incident occurred at 7.05am, minutes after the students had entered the Southern Avenue campus. Around 170 of them, from classes 8 and 9, were in the assembly line when the window, from Classroom 503, fell down.
Srinjoy Roy, one of the two boys who were injured, said they were praying with their eyes closed, when he felt "something hard, like an almirah", brush past his left arm and shoulder. "There was a crashing sound and glass shards everywhere, and I felt sharp pain in my hand and saw blood," he said. "My classmate was down, pressing his hands against his head, with blood oozing out from there."
Srinjoy's injuries were not serious, and he was released after first aid. But the injuries suffered by his classmate, Priyam Das, were more serious. He was taken to a private hospital in Dhakuria, where he was given first aid. Thereafter, he was shifted to a private hospital off EM Bypass, when his mother arrived and took him to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where she works.
Doctors said Priyam received 23 stitches in all: 14 on his head and nine stitches on his neck. "He is admitted to the trauma care ward, where he will be kept under observation for the next few days. He is currently stable," a hospital official said.
The incident sparked protests by parents and guardians, who demonstrated outside the campus for several hours since morning, demanding an explanation from the principal and management, and citing poor upkeep and maintenance of the school building.
Some guardians even claimed that there was a similar incident last month, but that no one was fortunately injured then. There was so much commotion at the school gates that senior students — between classes 7 and 10, who were supposed to disperse at 11.40am — could not leave until 12.15pm, as a section of protesting guardians had blocked the gate.
"The school authorities turn a blind eye towards maintenance and sanitation. Students complain of dirty washrooms and rickety school furniture. Even during parent-teacher meetings, we are not allowed to speak about such problems," said Ganjejib Ray, a parent.
School teachers said that the glass panel had come off when some students of Class 7 tried to open it. Principal Arijit Mitra has issued an apology to the parents for the accident, saying he would take all steps necessary to address repairs and maintenance. "Safety nets will be installed around the school building at the earliest to prevent the recurrence of such accidents. We are one of the few schools that has a dedicated medical unit with ambulance service. But the ambulance driver didn't turn up today, and we had to take the student to hospital in a private car. We have show-caused the ambulance driver," Mitra said.
Srinjoy's mother, Barnali Guha, levelled further allegations against the school authorities, saying no one from the school even informed her about the accident. "One of the parents called me up and said my son was hurt. When I reached school, they downplayed the incident. When I insisted that I wanted to see my son, I found they had only applied antiseptic and made him sit in class. I took him out for a medical check-up, a tetanus shot and necessary treatment at a nearby clinic," she said.
Another parent, Indrajit Chanda, said they would form a guardians' forum, which will meet the school authorities sometime later this week with a list of demands.