A shocking case of corporal punishment in a tribal school came to light when a parents’ group of students in Bhalubasa’s Harijan Uccha Vidyalaya created ruckus and protested against the punishment meted out to girl students on Friday morning.
Several parents staged demonstration and raised slogans against Abdul Majid, the headmaster of the school, who has been accused of caning the girl students of class IX on Thursday.
Sources informed, on a plea that the students were roaming in the school corridor during the interval the headmaster thrashed them with a cane. According to the sources one of the students Priyanka Dey fainted after reaching home at Bhuiyandih on Thursday evening. She was then rushed to the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College and Hospital in Sakchi by her parents. The student shared her plight to her parents.
The students claimed that they were caned mercilessly without any proper reason. The headmaster Abdul Majid, mercilessly hit the students that left them in tears. “It is really shocking the way the students were treated by our headmaster. We were just standing on the corridor and the headmaster came and started beating us. Once he went and all the girls were crying, he again came back and started caning us,” said a student
Meanwhile, the headmaster did not turn up to the school on Friday. The teachers and other staff also left the school campus when the agitation by the students began on Friday morning. Meanwhile father of the victim girl Swapan Dey filed a complaint with the Sitaramdera police station in this regard. He demanded immediate action and removal of the headmaster.
“I failed to understand what the fault of my child isIJ She is still in the state of shock. We will not tolerate this kind of behaviour especially from a headmaster. It is not the way girl students need to be treated. We will continue our agitation if the headmaster is not removed,” said Dey.
Meanwhile the new district education officer (DEO), Mukesh Kumar Sinha and other officials of the education department also visited the school toda and sought the information. “It is too early to comment. However, we will investigate the incident before coming to any conclusion,” said an official of the education department.