Girl alleges harassment by private school after failing class XI exams
Girl alleges harassment by private school after failing class XI exams
Failure is not an option, at least not at this school; and there are no second chances. But the charges made by
|
| The letter written by the victim. Pic/mid day |
Neha Routela, a class XI student of St George's School in south Delhi, are far graver. Neha says the principal of her school forcibly clicked some photographs of her and threatened to blackmail her with them.
In a letter, addressed to Ashok Agarwal, Advocate and National President of All India Parents Association (AIPA), Neha alleged that on July 9, when she went to the school located at Alaknanda, for a retest after failing in her class XI exams, the principal called her inside a room and started shouting at her for wearing casuals.
"It had been 3-4 months since I last went to school. So my school uniform had become very short and as I was not sure if the school will allow me in again or not, I didn't buy a new pair. But the principal didn't listen to me and called someone with a camera. She clicked my picture and kept on rebuking me. By now I was crying profusely, but she didn't care," complained Neha.
"After clicking the picture, the principal said: "Your parents complained about me, now I will have my revenge and blackmail you. I will put these pictures on the school wall and will show them to all the students.' I was really scared," Neha added.
Neha's parents had earlier complained to the Directorate of Education (DoE) that the school wasn't allowing her to give a retest after failing in her exams. Only after the DoE's intervention did the school grant permission to Neha.
Condemning the entire incident, Ashok Agarwal, Advocate and National President of All India Parents Association (AIPA) said: "This is not expected from the principal of any school.u00a0 We demand an apology from her, failing which, AIPA will stage a peaceful demonstration in front of the school."
Denying the entire incident St. George's School principal, Sara George said: "Nothing like that has happened. She would have said all this out of fear. I called up and asked her to take her studies seriously."
Neha's father Rajender Singh, who's a small businessman said: "We have written many letters to all concerned government departments. After that the principal agreed to take the retest. But that was conducted only at one day's notice. Still my daughter went and gave the exam. The only issue is the principal clicking those pictures. The supervisor and music teacher were witness to the entire incident."
Singh also complained that his daughter was being harassed because the family wrote a letter to the principal in Hindi. "She said that your parents wrote a letter in Hindi; that's so stupid. It's so difficult to understand Hindi," Singh said.
Now the student and her parents are scared that the principal might paste the pictures on the school walls and show them to everyone. They also urged to take some action against the principal.
| DISCIPLINARY ACT? |
| La Martiniere, a premier Kolkata school came into news after 13-year-old Rouvanjit Rawla allegedly committed suicide in February, after being caned. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) probe panel ruled that the student was driven to suicide by high degree of humiliation by his school, including the day of his suicide. The report which has been submitted to the NCPCR chairperson Shanta Sinha called for action against school principal Sunirmal Chakravarthy and three senior teachers. A team from the human resource development (HRD) ministry also visited the school to review a case of alleged suicide by a student after he was given corporal punishment. |
