Gurugram school murder - Is your child safe in school?

Ryan International is trending on twitter today. Anxious parents all across the country are asking to close down the school. But closing down Ryan International cannot be the solution. We need to address and assess the safety measures at every school in depth. In February this year, I remember reading about a CBSE letter issued to all school authorities about transport security of children. The letter clearly asks schools to install CCTV cameras and speed governors inside school buses. But till date very few schools follow his rule.

How Safe Are The Schools For Your Child?

Most of the schools don’t have basic safety measures in place and don’t follow the standard safety rule as well. The reasons for no safety measures in the school are as follows --

1. Most schools hire busses from agencies that keep changing the vehicle therefore it’s not possible to make sure that every vehicle is geared with the safety gadgets
2. During summers half the time the air-conditioned busses do not switch on the air-con until children demand, or worse parents go and complain. When these agencies try and save money by denying cool air to the children, one wonders if they would actually spend any money getting CCTVs and speed governors installed!
3. The bus drivers belong to these agencies, even the guards are hired from agencies. In fact the entire support staff in schools is hired from some agency or the other
4. And that’s where the root problem lies. These agencies enroll ‘ayas’, drivers, house keeping staff, guards… for as cheaper rates as possible and one doesn’t know if they even get any sort of verification done for them

Are The Agencies To Be Blamed?

are we trying to transfer the blame on these agencies? Not at all, the primary duty to provide a safe environment to our children lies with the school authorities. Most schools have a Chief Security In charge and a head of all Support staff. But to make sure these people do a proper screening before hiring people from these agencies is mandatory. So what should be the way forward --

1. Stringent rules must be followed and other than ‘ayas’ no support staff should be allowed inside the school building
2. And under no circumstances should staff be allowed to use the children’s washroom - not even the teaching staff. A sexual predator can be hiding behind any decent appearance
3. In fact every wing should have a different set of washrooms, older and smaller children should not use the same washroom just to avoid any sort of bullying

CCTV Cameras Are A Must In All The Nooks And Corners Of The School

In this case of a seven-year-old getting sexually assaulted and murdered at Ryan International, the CCTVs were very much in place. But a sexual predator like the accused conductor in this case gives two hoots to it. In all probability they don’t even know about the existence of these cameras. Also the footage was used later to nab the culprit, but it could not stop him from committing the crime.

How To Ensure Complete Safety For A Child In The School?

According to CBSE guidelines, regular teachers’ training and workshops have to be conducted; teachers and parents need to be sensitised and the children need to be made safety smart. What most school authorities fail to understand is that it is as important to conduct workshops and sensitise their support staff. And most important inculcate fear – that anyone even tries to touch a child, shall be severely punished.

CBSE asks schools to conduct mock drills to prepare everyone at school to deal with any terrorist attack, but its time schools prepare everyone, especially children to deal with such internal predators.

Start with educating all children especially the ‘tiny-tots’ about Good Touch and Bad Touch!

Please do share your thoughts...