City school to restrict students from attending classes if they do not wear helmets on bikes

Taking a stringent step to ensure that all students and their parents put helmets while travelling on motorbikes, St Joseph’s College school at Bowbazar in Central Kolkata has decided not to allow any of its students to attend school if they do not wear helmet.

It may be mentioned that several other schools in the city had taken the similar step soon after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had launched the state-wide ‘Safe Drive, Save Life’ campaign to reduce the number of road accidents.

The step then taken by the schools was effective enough in reducing the number of road accidents and at the same time to create awareness on hazards of riding bike without helmet.

Authorities of St Joseph’s College school also issued a notice stating that students will not be allowed to attend school if either the child or parents come to school riding a bike without wearing helmet.

Lives of both parents and school goers are precious. Thus it would not do if only the school goers put on helmets and their parents do not use it while riding bikes.

There are around 1,500 students in the school from Nursery to Class XII. Thus the steps taken by the school would create awareness among so many students and again these students would create the same awareness among the people they will come in touch with.

Traffic sergeants and constables posted in the area appreciated the step taken by the school authorities.

A traffic sergeant said: “We had been seeing for years that people taking their children to school on their motorbikes without using helmet. In some cases, parents put on helmets and risk the lives of their children.”

“Whenever we catch such people, they put forward the excuse of getting delayed in school. In worse cases, they claim that they had forgotten to take helmet in a hurry as they have to take their children to school at right time for examination. It leaves the police in a helpless situation as they cannot stop a child from reaching their school. Now, with the school taking steps, the menace will hopefully get solved permanently,” the sergeant added.