In
July 2nd 2001, a huge number of Maoist Insurgents appeared in the School
with their arms and armaments together. It was shocking that the number
of militias were greater than the total number of students and teachers
present in the School during the incident. The principal Santa Rai was
forced to take the insurgents around the School with a gun at this head.
Innocent students and staffs (didis) were gathered and locked up in a
room at gunpoint but luckily, there were no human casualties. That horror
lasted for about an hour and a half during which time the Maoist insurgents
vandalized the office equipment and documents and brutally exploded a
portion of a class-room building. Despite constant negotiation prior to
this incident to prevent such an occurrence, it was a shot from the back
to the School to terrorize students who according to universal human rights
should be kept free. And the School was forced to close down. All these
were happening at the time when the 8 of students were about to board
there plane back from their cultural show at Buttershow School in the
UK, after which they never saw their School again. The Maoists had no
reason to close the School and prevent the those students from getting
a culturally rooted yet modernly equipped education in their own local
environment. Right after the incident, as we can well envision, the teachers
packed their bags and the students dispersed to a hopeless future. We
salute the founder of the School for being able to directly coordinate
sponsorship of at least 45 of these students who were brought down to
the city to continue their studies. As of today, only 13 are left to graduate
with their secondary degrees. |