Staff correspondent, NewsCrunch
A Class 10 student of a posh school ruptured his eardrum and lost 25 per cent of hearing ability following a bizarre game of slaps with his friends.
The victim’s parents said the traumatised boy has stopped going to school and weeps constantly. He has not been eating or sleeping properly after the assault, which took place on September 4 at Pathways School in Noida, a suburb of New Delhi.
A video of the disturbing incident, shot by a classmate, has gone viral drawing widespread support to the victim’s parents, who described it as an act bullying.
School Director Shalini Advani dismissed the allegations by the parents and said that it was a consensual 'slap-bet'.
In a slap bet, popular among high school students, the winner gets to slap the loser as hard as he can.
In a letter addressed to the parents of the School she wrote that the child who got hit was the one who laid the bet.
“In that sense, it was not an act of bullying but an act with two participants, who behaved stupidly," she noted.
The video shows about five students outside the school washroom, where the ‘slap bet’ takes place. As other students watch, one of them gives a stinging slap to the victim, who winces in pain and tries to cover his face with his arm.
After the victim's parents complained, the students involved in the incident were made to apologise in the school assembly in the presence of their parents.
The boy, who slapped has been suspended for a month, and two others for two weeks.