Scolded by teacher, four Tamil Nadu girls end lives

Vellore: Four girl students of a government higher secondary school here ended their lives by jumping into a well in a suicide pact after being allegedly chided by teachers for not being attentive in class, the police said.

The Class 11 students of Panapakkam Government Higher Secondary School at the nearby Arakkonam town jumped into a farm well at Nangamangalam village on Friday. Fire and rescue services personnel fished out the bodies and sent them for autopsy to a government hospital Friday night.

“Based on the inquiry, the headmistress and class teacher have been suspended,” a district education official told reporters here on Saturday.

The reason for the girls’ suicide is yet to be ascertained, a top district police official said.

“Four teams of police personnel are questioning the class students, teachers, and others and only after the conclusion of the inquiry would the cause of the suicide be known,” he said.

The official said no suicide note had been recovered. He said preliminary probe revealed that 11 students were chided by teachers for not being attentive in class and were asked to bring their parents on November 24.

“Yesterday, out of the 11 students, seven apologised and assured the teachers that they will be attentive. The other four students ended their lives,” he said. The seven girls who tendered apology too had not brought their parents, he added.

Of the four girls who committed suicide, two came to school in the morning and left the premises immediately. They later joined the other two and all of them went to the farm in their bicycles.