Step by Step students fall ill after lunch, catering co suspended

NOIDA: Several

students

of

Step by Step

, a leading private school in Noida, complained of stomach ache and vomited on campus after eating

lunch

on Thursday.

Police and the health department said that around 20 children had taken

ill

, of whom 11 were treated at three private hospitals in Delhi and Noida, while the rest were taken home by their parents. A spokesperson for Jaypee Hospital, which treated four students, said that the students were discharged after being given medicines. Police said it was possible more kids were affected and they were not aware of that.

The school management had called a team of doctors from Max Hospital to the campus at Sector 132 and subsequently rushed the students to the hospitals. Going by the accounts of various parents, based on what their children told them, it seemed the kids started feeling uneasy after a meal of ‘paratha and aloo subzi’.

Step by Step did not issue a formal statement, and the school management refused reporters entry to the campus. But it did send out emails to parents, informing them about what had happened in the school and what steps it was taking. “Some of the students at our school have had mild to severe stomach ache and some have had vomiting,” one of the emails, issued from principal Mahesh Prasad’s office, said, adding the cause of the problem was “unclear”.

In another email, the school said it had

suspended

the services of Sodexo, which is in charge of providing meals to students. The school does not allow children to bring food from home but that rule has been temporarily withdrawn. “In view of the unfortunate incident that took place today, till the cause is ascertained, as a precautionary measure, the school requests that all parents send their children to school with food and water till further notice,” it wrote to parents.

Noida police, however, said the school had not kept the same line of communication open with cops who had visited the premises. “The school management is not cooperating in the investigation. They have not revealed what the students had eaten during lunch,” said Vedpal Singh Pundir, SHO of the Expressway police station. Senior police officers also said they were under pressure from “higher authorities” to go slow in the probe.

District magistrate B N Singh said, “We were informed that 20 children have fallen unwell. We have sent city magistrate, food inspector to the spot. The CMO has been directed to collect food samples. We will take strict action,” he said.

The team from the food department team was, however, stopped at the school gates for one and a half hours and could only enter after the district administration intervened, a senior official said. A police team and city magistrate Mahendra Singh also visited the Step by Step campus in the evening but waited for hours outside the gates as they were allegedly denied entry.

Later, on a complaint from Singh, an FIR was filed against Step by Step at the Expressway police station. A parent also filed a separate complaint against the school. The charges invoked in the FIR included sections 328 (causing hurt by means of poison), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from duty) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the IPC.

SHO Pundir said the service provider for the school’s meals was Sodexo Food Solution, which appeared to have “served substandard food”. The district food department had fined Sodexo in August 2016 for providing below-par beverage to students.

“Students from different classes were having food in the lunch break. They ate paratha and aloo curry and started feeling unwell. The students started vomiting on the spot and the school management was alarmed,” said a parent, who requested not to be named.

Max Hospital said it received three students while four students were admitted to Jaypee Hospital. Another five students were treated at Apollo Hospital in Jasola (Delhi). A Jaypee Hospital spokesperson said two boys (from classes IV and X) and two girls (from classes II and VII) were admitted in the afternoon. “The students had complications like vomiting, stomach cramps and headache. They were administered medicines and discharged after some time,” the spokesperson said.