Stabbing fallout: Surprise random school bag-checking drive carried out in Ahmedabad and Surat

Ahmedabad (city) DEO Rohit Chaudhary paid a surprise visit to Akhandanand School in Shahpur area on Friday morning and conducted random school bag-checking on its students.

“Simultaneously, different teams conducted similar checks at other schools across the city today. No laxity will be tolerated in ensuring students follow discipline in schools,” Chaudhary told The Indian Express.

In Surat, even as teachers of different schools carried out random checking of bags, DEO teams also called on a few campuses and participated in the drive.

On Thursday, the Surat DEO had issued notification to all the self-financed, grant-in-aid primary, secondary and higher secondary schools in the district to carry out random checking of school bags of students. The focus of the teachers conducting the checks was to see if the bags contained sharp weapons or objects, or drugs.

Surat DEO Parmar told The Indian Express, “We have directed all the schools to carry out surprise checking of school bags of students. The schools were told to ask the parents to check the school bags of children before sending them to school. The schools should form an independent committee comprising the principal, teachers and monitors of classrooms so that strict actions can be promptly taken. If any blunt object or controversial literature is found in the bag of any student, they would first be counselled by the school authorities. The parents would also be informed about it. Such an incident should be reported to the DEO. If the student continues doing such an act, strict actions should be taken against them.”

Parmar said, “If any drug is found in the bag of a student, or some ‘roadside Romeos’ are spotted outside the school premises, the authorities should contact the police department, or they should contact the DEO.”

Parmar said, “We are satisfied with the school authorities as they have taken up this security issue seriously and begun checking school bags of students. Due to such surprise checking, the students would fear bringing such items to the school campus.”

Surat police commissioner Anupam Singh Gahlaut said, “We are in coordination with the Surat DEO office. If any such object or material, or any drug, is found in the school bag, we will talk to the student and find out the source from where they got it and the motive behind carrying such a thing to the school. We have also asked the local police inspectors to visit the school and talk to the staffers as well as students to remove any fear of police.”

Fight for justice will continue until action taken: ABVP

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has announced that protests will continue against the Ahmedabad school till action is taken against it.

ABVP Gujarat secretary Samarth Bhatt said, “ABVP stands with the victim’s family and will continue the fight until strict legal action is taken against the school administrators and employees responsible in the case.”

ABVP further alleged no effective action has been taken by the school management so far. Despite parents demanding answers, no clear response has been given by the management, they alleged. The school authorities could not be contacted for comment despite repeated attempts.