A four-year-old boy, a UKG student of an English medium school at Kudappanakkunnu in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram district, was locked up in the kennel attached to the school premises for five hours by the school principal and class teacher as punishment for talking to a fellow-student in the classroom.
According to the child, his sister, a Class III student in the same school, and their father Jomon, the incident took place on September 25 but the children had not informed the parents about it as they were warned against doing so by the school authorities. Tension prevailed at the school premises on Monday following protests by parents and social, political and youth organisations.
“I saw my brother sitting in the kennel last Thursday when I went to the toilet. I saw him there at least three times on that day since morning. I did not ask the teacher about it out of fear but then I was told by the teacher that they would stuff tree-twigs into my mouth if I spoke about it,” said the victim’s sister.
“I was speaking to my friend sitting next to me in the class room when the teacher asked me to stop it. When I talked again, she took me to the kennel and put me there after removing the dog from there. I was kept there from morning till evening and I was given no food or water at all during this time,” the boy said. However, the school authorities denied the charges.
According to Jomon, the children had not spoken to him or his wife about the incident on the day it had taken place. “We came to know of it after my daughter told my wife’s sister about it. I took up the matter with the school authorities but they denied it. It was after that we went to the Child Welfare Committee and the Child Rights Commission,” he said.
Jomon said that the child was kept in the kennel from about 10 am till 3 pm. On Monday morning, the police from the Peroorkada station in Thiruvananthapuram took Sasikala, the school principal, into custody. The police had a tough time taking her to their vehicle parked outside the school through the protesting crowd of parents and activists.
Sources said her arrest was recorded towards Monday evening and that she was charged under the Juvenile Justice Act. Social Justice Minister MK Muneer, who termed the incident as brutal, said stringent action would be taken against the principal and other school authorities after receiving the preliminary enquiry report.
“The child says that he was not even given some water when he asked for it,” said the boy’s mother. “There is a wound in one of his ankles and I understand that he suffered it when the teacher dragged him out of the kennel in the evening,” she said, adding that the teacher who had done this had not come to the school on Monday.
Sources in the State Education Department said the school did not possess the no-objection certificate. According to local residents, this was not the first time complaints of ill-treatment of students had come up against the school. They also said that the school, which had classes from lKG to Class VII, did not have the required infrastructure.
