Family of the schoolboy, who died early this week, decided not to take any legal action over the death of their child. The burial of Mehr Ali, a student of seventh grade at the prestigious Saint Mary’s School in Rawalpindi, was conducted on Tuesday.
The boy died after he fell off the stairs of the school building after he was allegedly given “strenuous punishment” by one of his teachers.
Station House Officer of Civil Lines police told the media that the father of the deceased had said that he did not want any legal action over his son’s death.
The SHO further said the police high ups had asked him to approach the family of the student and take legal action on their complaint but the family refused to pursue the case.
At 10am on Monday, Mehr fell from the eighth step of the stairs of the school building and got his spinal cord damaged. He was rushed to the nearby Combined Military Hospital (CMH) but could not survive.
Some class fellows of the deceased had told the media persons that a male teacher made Mehr carryout sit-ups as punishment. After that the teacher asked Mehr to bring some books from the 1st floor. The boy, who was dizzy and exhausted after the sit-ups, could not maintain his balance and fell headlong from the stairs.
However, the administration of Saint Mary’s School located in Lalazar area termed the death an accident.
The principal of the school said that the boy could not keep his balance while climbing the stairs and fell back because he was a little heavy.
Patras Bhatti, the principal of Saint Mary’s School said, “A guard was the eye witness of the incident and he informed the school management about details of the incident.”
“We took Mehr to CMH where he was pronounced dead and his medical report stated that his spinal cord had been damaged as a result of the accident, he added.
When asked if the school management had looked into the allegations that the death of the boy was caused by the punishments given to him, Bhatti said, “I remained too busy tackling this issue the whole day and could not carryout any effort in this regard.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 21st, 2011.
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@Faraz Talat: you seem to be missing the point -- no matter how mild it is compared to other schools' punishment it killed him. There are other ways of punishing kids for not doing their homework.
As an ex-Saint Marian, this saddens me deeply. I can relate to the pain caused by such harsh punishments, but it should not be used as an excuse for us to lash out against Saint Mary's in particular. Because, as a matter of fact, the punishments meted out in this school are actually milder compared to what most other school children have to go through.