In a shocking incident, a city school first dismissed an alleged six-year-old ‘rape survivor’ only a week after she was admitted, but re-admitted on Tuesday following a furore created by her parents and relatives.
The school management also assured the parents of Seema Kumari (name changed) to provide her education irrespective of the trauma and incidents occurred with her last year.
“My daughter had gone through similar trauma a year ago, when she was physically abused by her tuition teacher. Now, when we are trying to get her into mainstream and remove her scars, the past incidents are haunting her back,” said Pinky Devi, mother of Seema, reacting to the school incident.
Without giving any proper notice, the school management called Pinky on February 20 to school and asked her to take away her daughter immediately, as her past, if revealed might affect other students in several ways. “I was shocked, when the school principal defamed my daughter’s image calling her rape victim and immediately asked us to leave the campus. She also took away all the essential school documents from me,” Pinky added.
However, when Pinky raised the issue and gathered support on this serious allegation from people of diverse sections, after much hue and cry, the school authority re-admitted the girl back to the school. “After much drama, the school authorities are now ready to admit my child back. I just hope further discrimination is not made against her at any level. She will join school from Wednesday,” Pinky pointed out.
Notably, Seema was physically abused by her tuition teacher in January 2015. The matter is pending with Juvenile Justice Board whereas the accused is evading arrest since long. Hailing from lower strata of society, Pinky feels, such discriminations are made because they are not well-off. However, Pinky is not sure who exactly complained and brought this incident into limelight again but firmly believes that such incident hampers the morale and has negative consequences on child psychology.
On the other hand, the principal of RNG Public School was not available for comment. After several attempts one of the school staff, Arvind Kumar, clarified the issue and said, “The matter has been sorted out completely and the girl too has been re-admitted. The staffs and members of the school are committed to provide quality education to students and also assured such incidents will never take place in school again.”
Unaware about the matter, the chairperson of State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR), Manoj Kumar, said, “I have no idea about the issue. Still no school can defame a child’s image. Whatever incidents have occurred with her in the past it is the school’s responsibility to make child self dependent without hampering her spirit and image.”