Hathras: Boy locked in classroom for 2 hours, 10 teachers suspended

The incident took place at a government primary school in Nangla Singh village in the Sasni block of Hathras district on Wednesday. The father of the 6-year-old boy, who works as a labourer, said that when his son did not return home after school, he started to panic. “His school usually gets over by 2 pm and he gets back home after some time. However, when he didn’t turn up till 2:30 pm, I started looking for him in the village,” the father said.

He added: “I visited the school thereafter to find him sitting inside a classroom which was locked from outside. I then requested one of the senior teachers from the school, who had the key, to open the classroom. It was nearly 4 pm when my son finally returned home. The child studies in the second standard at the primary school.

The district education department soon took cognizance of the incident and instructed an inquiry into the matter on Friday. Sandeep Kumar, Basic Shiksha Adhikari of Hathras, said, “After the matter came before the department, 10 school teachers have been suspended with immediate effect. A committee, headed by the block officer in the area, has also been constituted. This committee will consist of Block officer Sasni and Block officer from Hasayan. Based on the report submitted by them, appropriate action will be taken soon. There are an adequate number of teachers in the school at the moment and if required, more teachers will be provided as well.”

The father alleged that his son was probably feeling sleepy during class and noticing that, the teacher had asked him to “go to sleep”. However, the father claimed that his son was not woken up even after school got over.