A 16-year-old schoolboy from Delhi, excited about another day with his drama club, ended his life on Tuesday afternoon after he was allegedly molested by his teachers.
In the suicide note he left behind, the 10th grader asked for his organs to be donated and urged that no child should have to endure the suffering he experienced.
Police said the Class 10 student of a private school jumped from the platform of Rajendra Place metro station in central Delhi at 2:34 p.m. He was taken to the nearby BLK Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
In his note, he named several teachers and accused them of long-term mental harassment.
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Here is what he wrote in his suicide note:
According to a senior police officer, the suicide note found at the scene began with the boy identifying himself and asking the reader to call the number.
He wrote that constant reprimands from school staff drove him to commit suicide. The boy apologized to his parents and elder brother and also asked for his organs to be donated.
“Sorry bhaiya, I was rude to you all the time,” he wrote to his brother. He told his mother, “I’m sorry mom, however many times I’ve broken your heart, I’ll do it for the last time.”
He expressed his gratitude to his parents and his guilt that he could not do more for them.
The officer said the letter ended with the boy asking that what was left of it be used to help someone else.
“Give my organs to the needy,” he wrote, adding that if any organs were still functioning after the fall, they should be donated.
“My school is just that. My last wish is for them to be dealt with. I don’t want any other child to go through this,” he concluded.
Police said the allegations and the contents of the note are being investigated.
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‘Teachers hurt him emotionally’: Boy’s father
The father of a 16-year-old boy claimed his son had been struggling for months with how he was being treated at school.
“He used to tell me and my wife that the teachers used to scold him for every little thing and hurt him emotionally. We complained verbally many times but they never stopped,” the father told PTI.
The father said they avoided more drastic measures as the Class 10 exams were approaching. “His exams were due in a month or two. Twenty grades from school. I didn’t want to disturb anything,” he said.
The boy’s family assured that he would be admitted to another school after the exams.
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What led to the extreme step?
According to the father, he and his wife had traveled to Kolhapur in Maharashtra on November 18 for his mother’s surgery, while their son went to school as usual on Tuesday. The first call informing them of the incident came at 2:45 p.m.
On Tuesday, the boy was late for a session at the drama club and, according to his father, something that happened there deeply upset him.
“He slipped and fell in drama class. The teacher pushed him and insulted him in front of everyone, saying he was exaggerating,” said the father. “They scolded him so much that he started crying, but the teacher told him they didn’t care how much he cried.
It wasn’t the first time his son felt cornered, he said.
“His classmates told me that the teacher threatened him and said they would give him a transfer certificate and call us (parents) to the school. It wasn’t just him, but three to four other kids were behaving the same way,” he said.
The boy recently participated in a dance competition and talked about wanting to explore theater and dance more, his father said.
“He was also pretty good at studies,” he said.
