By Zainab Namusaazi Ssengendo
Teachers, pupils and parents of St. Jude Thaddeus Primary School in Bukomansimbi town council are in shock after a P.7 candidate committed suicide in the school library.
The motive of the suicide, which occurred on October 20, remains unknown.
The deceased was identified as Paulo Luyimbazi, 15.
Luyimbazi's body was taken to Masaka Regional Referral Hospital for a post mortem.
When we visited the school, we found Luyimbazi's relatives at the school gate, in a sombre mood.
They had been denied entry and it took the intervention of some people to allow them access the premises.
The relatives accused the teachers of torturing their child, a claim that could not be verified.
"This school always gives corporal punishments to our children. How can a pupil be punished with 80 strokes of the cane?" one of the relatives wondered."
"On Saturday last week [October 15] I was at school. I paid all school dues but I failed to see him. This Sunday is their visitation day so I was planning to come and motivate him for the upcoming PLE exams that he was about to do," one of the relatives told Nile Post.
However, some of the pupils at the school told us that Luyimbazi had been accused of committing crimes and when he was told to go to the office of the headteacher he instead went to the library where he committed suicide.
"We saw him yesterday and today morning. They told him to go to the headteacher's office but he instead went to the library and committed suicide," one of the pupils told us.
Bukomansimbi town council mayor Christophe Ssekikubo who was one of the first people to rush to the school said that he found the body of the deceased on the floor with a rope tied around the neck.
"The rope was like these which they use to tie coffee sacks," he said.
Bukomansimbi RDC, Jane Frances Kagaayi, who also rushed to school advised teachers to establish harmonious relationships with pupils to avoid such occurrences in schools.
The school administration declined to comment on the matter.