Protesters ransacked the school today.
Day-long turmoil at a girl's school in Kolkata, turmoil that continued well into the night and ended with the principal first apologising, then resigning and finally getting arrested.
A class 5 student of the school, Oindrilla Das, died yesterday, allegedly because of trauma after being locked up in a school bathroom by senior students who had demanded Rs 100 from her which she failed to produce.
From about 10 am today, angry parents of other students of the Christ Church School in north Kolkata went on the rampage, breaking furniture and glass and demanding the principal, Helen Sharmila Sarkar's resignation.
Parents blamed the principal for innumerable irregularities at the school, including failure to act against habitual bullies. Said one angry parent, "We want the principal to go. Otherwise we will shut down the school."
Biswajit Chakraborty, whose daughter studies in class 2 at this school said, "We want a resignation of the principal Helen Sarkar. She also must apologise and we don't want to see her in the school ever again."
A large police contingent rushed to the school around noon and tried to calm down the agitated crowd of over a thousand people and begin some kind of negotiation.
Around 4 pm, there seemed to be a denouement of sorts, with the police escorting the principal to the first floor balcony of the school from where she used a police megaphone to apologise and promise action against those who had bullied Oindrilla.
"With folded hands I am begging forgiveness from you. Guardians please be patient. We will talk," she said.
But the apology was just not good enough, the crowd continued to bay for her resignation and block the only exit from the school building. Two hours later, the resignation letter came, first on plain paper - which the crowd would not accept - and then on a letterhead.
After the crowd dispersed, the principal was arrested on the basis of the FIR Oindrilla's parents had filed, an FIR in which they accused school authorities of failing to prevent bullying, leading to the death of their daughter.