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Ryan school reopens 10 days after murder, closes again

Parents’ concern over security prompts officials to close Ryan International School for four more days

Ten days after the gruesome murder of a seven-year-old boy on its premises, the Bhondsi branch of Ryan International School reopened on Monday. The district administration, however, later decided to close the school for the next four days after parents said they were not satisfied with the security measures.

Only 250 of the total 1,200-odd students came to school on Monday.

Holding a meeting with Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh, after the local administration formally took over management of the school in the morning, the parents expressed apprehension about the security of their wards and demanded that all requisite measures be put in place at the earliest.

PTA meeting on Sept. 23

Many of the parents opposed the administration’s decision to open the school without addressing their security concerns.

Mr. Singh assured the parents that the security measures would be put in place in a time-bound manner and a time-line in this regard would be uploaded on the school’s website.

He said that a Parent-Teacher Meeting would be held on September 23 to discuss any concerns.

The few students who decided to come to school were met with dozens of media persons vying with each other to seek their reaction.

A couple of electronic media personnel even barged into buses and cabs ferrying students.

Ankush, a class VI student, said he was glad to return to school but was scared. His father Ram Niwas complained that he had to drop Ankush as the school transport did not turn up.

“There was no communication from the school regarding transport. I will have to come in the afternoon again to pick him up. So I took an off from work today,” said Mr. Niwas.

‘My son is scared’

Renu Naulakha, a mother of a class V student, said her son was too scared to use the wash-room in the school after the murder.

“He told me that he would not drink water in school to avoid going to the wash-room,” said Ms. Naulakha.

Her husband Arbind Naulakha, however, said the parents were confident about the security of their kids after the local administration took over management of the school.

Vijay Singh Chauhan, a resident of Bhondsi village, came with his wife Pushpa and son Aditya, a class IV student, to take stock of the situation after the school reopened.

‘May change school’

“We have come to see how many students have turned up on the first day and what is the atmosphere like. Aditya was not comfortable attending school, so we decided to keep him at home,” said Mr. Chauhan.

A few parents said that they thinking of shifting their kids to other schools. However, there were no formal requests for Transfer Certificates on the first day of school.