A six-year-old boy in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam collapsed in the classroom and died after being slapped by his teacher for not completing his homework on Thursday, police said.
The incident occurred at a private school in the One Town area of Visakhapatnam.
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A video clip from CCTV footage of the classroom that went viral on social media shows the boy, holding his slate, standing in a queue in front of the teacher, visibly panicked. As the teacher adjusted his uniform, the student was seen crying, begging her not to beat him. The teacher pulled him closer and slapped him on his cheek. Within seconds, the boy was seen collapsing onto the teacher.
“The teacher apparently alerted the other teachers, who rushed there and tried to do CPR on the student. Later, the school staff rushed him to a nearby hospital, but doctors declared him dead on arrival. Apparently, the boy had suffered a cardiac arrest out of panic,” Visakhapatnam revenue divisional officer Sadhu Dileep Chakravarthy told reporters.
The child’s body was later shifted to King George Hospital (KGH) for a post-mortem examination. “We shall order an inquiry into the matter,” the RDO said.
{{/usCountry}}The child’s body was later shifted to King George Hospital (KGH) for a post-mortem examination. “We shall order an inquiry into the matter,” the RDO said.
{{/usCountry}}King George Hospital superintendent Dr I Vani told HT that the boy had already died by the time he was brought to the hospital. “I, too, saw the video, but we cannot immediately say whether he suffered cardiac arrest due to panic or any other reason,” she said.
She said the parents of the boy had not given their consent till evening for conducting the post-mortem. “Just now, we got the information from the police that the parents had agreed to the post-mortem. We shall complete the post-mortem by tonight. Only after the report comes out, we shall be able to tell the exact cause of death,” Vani said.
The boy’s family gathered outside the school after learning of his death, and blamed the teacher for his death.
“Our family went on a pilgrimage last week for a few days and returned only on Wednesday. That was the reason why he had not done the homework. He had no health issues at all,” his father told reporters.
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“How can the teacher behave so rudely with a UKG student?” he asked.
The child’s mother said the school management did not even inform them about the incident. “Without informing us, they directly took my son to the hospital, where he was declared dead,” she alleged.
The family has demanded strict action against the teacher and the school management.
The school has not commented on the development
A police officer at the One Town Police Station said an investigation had been launched.
The Visakhapatnam district education department has also initiated an inquiry to determine the circumstances surrounding the child’s death and whether there was any negligence on the part of the school, people familiar with the matter said.