New Delhi: An 18-year-old student of the Modern School in Vasant Vihar, studying in class 12, died due to an asthma attack.
The school authorities say they tried all they could to save her, including taking her to hospital. But the parents say the incident happened due to negligence by the school.
At 10:20 on Monday morning, Akriti told her teacher that she was feeling unwell. This is where things started going wrong, according to Akriti's parents.
The school gave her oxygen, which they removed when they transported her from the school to a nearby hospital, that also in the Bhatia's car, which had been to pick up Akriti.
"Why did the school not call for an ambulance? Why did they wait for our car? I don't want this happening to anyone else, so I want action to be taken," said Akriti's mother Anu Bhatia.
"I have my son there. I am going to remove him. They didn't have basic facilities. My daughter could have been saved if she had been taken to the hospital in time," said Akriti's father Vipan Bhatia.
The school says this is completely untrue, and that they did everything possible.
"We did all we could to save the child. We gave her oxygen, then we took her to the hospital in our own van. I don't want to blame the mother, but she wanted her to be taken to a relative's home. So we ourselves took her to the hospital," said Goldie Malhotra, principal, Modern School.
The nursing home Akriti was taken to told NDTV that Akriti was brought dead, if she had been brought earlier she could have been save.
Akriti's relatives have started a Facebook movement, asking that Modern School answer some tough questions. The site has already generated a lot of traffic, but it's uncertain if the school was really at fault. But what is clear is that better medical facilities are needed in schools, especially in an environment where diseases like asthma and diabetes are becoming common amongst children.