Students fall ill after inhaling insecticide in school

Ranchi: When the DAV Public School situated in Nagar Untari block of Garhwa district opened on Wednesday morning, students were greeted by a stench in the classrooms and soon they started feeling nauseous. Not before long, some children started vomiting and had to be rushed to the hospital, following which the principal closed down the school and informed the police.
On investigation, police found that some miscreants had thrown insecticide powder into some of the classrooms on Tuesday night while the school was closed.
Garhwa SP, Priyadarshi Alok said, "When the police team searched the school, they found insecticide in various classrooms which were probably thrown in through the window. We have collected samples of the insecticide and will send it for testing."
While the police has not been able to identify the culprits, the investigation is still on.
Principal of the school, Shravan Kumar Gupta, informed that insecticide was found in eight classrooms and five students, two of class IV and one each of class VI, VII and VIII started vomiting, including his daughter Pragya Kumari of VIII.
He said, "We closed down the school immediately after the prayer session when students started falling sick. Thankfully, there has been no serious problem. I visited all the children's homes and they are all fine."
On being asked if he suspected anyone in the matter, Gupta said that this is the first of its kind incident and he cannot think of anyone who may be behind it.
The school has around 600 students studying in class I to X but there is no guard deployed by the school administration. Had the guard been there, the incident might have been avoided.
Gupta said, "The school is situated in a residential area surrounded by houses, so we never felt the need of a guard. However, after this incident, we will definitely hire a guard. Also, we have requested the police to look into the matter and they have promised regular patrolling in the area."
Meanwhile, the district education officer of Garhwa Ramyatan Ram took the matter seriously. He said, "As the health of children is concerned, we will also investigate the matter from our end. A school not having a guard is definitely a serious issue. We will take necessary action after the investigation."