Surat: School student ‘attacks’ senior with iron bar, fight resolved after their fathers turn out to be long lost friends

The Surat District Education Office, though, has taken a serious note of the attack and asked school authorities to take strict action against the students following an investigation.

According to sources, an altercation had taken place between the two teenagers after the senior boy teased his junior in front of other students on the school campus on Tuesday. After school hours, when the Class 12 student was on his way home on his bicycle, his junior chased him in an autorickshaw and intercepted him halfway, said sources. The duo had a heated exchange during which the Class 11 student allegedly attacked his senior with an iron bar that he had picked from a construction site near the school premises, the sources added.

Following the incident, the victim went home from where his parents took him to the doctor’s clinic and got him treated.

On Wednesday, the victim’s parents, along with guardians of other students, reached the school, staged a dharna and demanded that the accused student be expelled. Both the students are from the English medium section of the school.

The principal of the school’s English medium section, Vikash Pathak, called the parents of both the students in his chamber and held a meeting with them on Wednesday afternoon. Himanshu Barot, an education inspector of the Surat District Education Office, was also present during the meeting.

As the fathers of both the students introduced themselves, they discovered that they had been school friends some 25 years ago, said sources. Both sets of parents then decided to arrive at a compromise and not pursue the matter further, the sources added.

The victim’s father, on condition of anonymity, said, “After learning about the incident, a few other parents and I wanted the student who had attacked my son to be expelled from the school. For this reason, we were protesting outside the school campus this morning. But when the accused student’s father shared his name, I recalled an old memory and spoke with him. I discovered that he was a childhood schoolmate of mine in the Walled City area. After two-and-a-half decades, we finally met and hugged each other. The meeting with him took me back to my childhood days when we shared lunch and played together. Later, in high school, we went our separate ways and lost touch.”

He further said, “With this incident, I found my long lost friend. Our children and the school principal were shocked to see us chatting in a friendly manner. I told the principal that I don’t want any action against the accused student, and we resolved the issue.”

Talking to The Indian Express, principal Pathak said, “The issue was sorted out after the parents of both the students arrived at a compromise and informed us that they didn’t want any steps to be taken. The fathers of both students were childhood classmates and they have sorted out the issue among themselves.”

Surat District Education Officer Bhagirathsinh Parmar said, “The issue may have been resolved (among the two parties) but we have taken the matter seriously and instructed the school authorities to take strict action against the students. We will not tolerate any such incident. We have also told the school authorities to report to us about action taken against the students.”

Notably, the incident comes in the backdrop of a few cases of attack on students by their schoolmates in the state last month. On August 20, a Class 10 student at an Ahmedabad school was allegedly stabbed to death by another student. The incident had led to widespread protests in the city and prompted education authorities to take corrective action, such as intensive checking of school bags, in different parts of the state.

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