Ullal: Irked over low marks, student mixes expired tablets into teacher’s water

Ullal: Irked over low marks, student mixes expired tablets into teacher’s water

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Oct 8, 2023: A Class 6 girl student, angry after getting low marks for what she thought correct answers, mixed expired tablets into a teacher’s water bottle in a private English-medium school in Kotekar, Ullal, police said.

The teacher and her colleague fell ill after consuming the water and were hospitalised.

“CCTV footage showed the girl along with a classmate placing tablets into the water bottle. Both the girls admitted to their action, saying it was an act of revenge against the mathematics teacher,” said a school official who didn’t want to be named. “The girl has brought the tablets from her house.”

The girl said she and her close classmate took the action because they had received low marks, even for correct answers, in the mid-term examination.

The mathematics teacher who consumed the water during breakfast experienced vomiting and dizziness, while another female teacher who drank from the same bottle suffered facial swelling. “Other teachers in the staffroom noticed undissolved tablets and a peculiar odour in the water bottle and immediately took the affected teachers to the government hospital in Ullal,” said the headmaster.

The school management convened an urgent meeting with the School Development Management Committee (SDMC) and questioned both girls, who initially denied the charges but later confessed after viewing the CCTV footage, said another teaching staff of the school, who didn’t want to be named.

The school contacted the parents of the girls to apprise them of the incident and presented the CCTV footage. The school management committee later announced that both the girl students were expelled from school due to the “gravity of their actions.”

But the school did not to file a complaint with the police, citing the girls’ future as the primary concern.

Ullal police said that the tablets mixed into the water bottle were commonly kept at homes for minor illnesses but had expired. Doctors said the teachers are out of danger.

Mangaluru Police Commissioner Anupam Agarwal said the police refrained from filing a formal complaint to avoid detrimental consequences for the girls’ future. “But the Ullal police cautioned the girls and advised their parents to prevent recurrence of such incidents. We have suggested counselling for the students,” he said.