Just a couple of days ago, local media reported on a teacher who allegedly chopped off several children’s hair for not adhering to her instruction to trim their hair.
If this sounded barbaric, an incident reported in a Bengaluru school will make you cringe.
According to the parent of a five-year-old LKG girl, studying in East Wood High School in Bengaluru’s Ulsoor area, the child’s teacher pulled down her underpants in front of the classroom and made the children say “shame, shame, puppy shame”.
“It all started with physical punishment for my daughter at school. Every morning she would cry and say she did not want to go to school. At first I ignored her as I thought she needed time to adjust to the new school. Later when I asked her the reason, she told me that her class teacher was beating her regularly,” said Anandhi*, the child’s mother.
Anandhi said that she requested the class teacher to stop beating her child on three different occasions, but she claims that the beatings continued, after which she took up the issue with the school’s principal.
“Several other parents had also voiced their concerns with each other but they never complained to the school. When I complained to the principal, she initially denied that teachers were beating the children. Her parting words to me were – a teacher does not have any other option but beat the children to instil discipline,” Anandhi said.
She said that the beatings had reduced after she warned the principal that she would take the issue up with the media but the teacher then resorted to shaming the children in the classroom.
“My daughter came home crying a few days ago, and said that her class teacher had removed her sweater and shamed her in front of the class. When I went to the school the next day, another boy’s underpants were removed. He was made to stand in front of the class with just his shirt. The boy was crying uncontrollably. It was then that my daughter said that the same had happened to her,” Anandhi said.
Anandhi had approached the principal, who allegedly told her to withdraw her daughter’s admission from the school.
“Rather than take the teacher to task, she asked me to withdraw her admission from the school. She said that the students of the school were expected to perform well to uphold the school’s reputation and teachers had no choice by resort to beating if children underperformed,” Anandhi said.
She fears that her daughter is becoming violent because of the punishment doled out by the teacher and is worried about her daughter’s mental health.
When TNM contacted the teacher, Thahseen, she denied beating the children.
“I did not beat any child. I don’t know why she wants to take revenge on me. You can contact the principal,” Thahseen said.
Despite repeated attempts to call the school, TNM did not receive any response.
*Name changed on request