Education officials acted against accused for harassment only after stir by students: Teachers

Education officials acted against accused for harassment only after stir by students: Teachers

The classmates collected the evidence of the teacher’s chat with the girls and handed it over, along with a complaint, to the headmistress seeking to transfer him to another school.

Published: 26th December 2021 05:35 AM |

By N Dhamotharan

Express News Service

COIMBATORE: The School Education officials failed to conduct inquiries with a computer teacher even one week after a complaint of sexual harassment and assault was filed against him with the headmistress of the government higher secondary school near Vellalore in Coimbatore, the teachers in the school alleged. While the teacher was suspended on Friday, the teachers said the officials took the action only after the school students staged protests. Meanwhile, the teacher was arrested on Saturday.

According to the teachers, "Ever since the online classes began, the computer teacher started sending inappropriate messages to girl students on their WhatsApp. Further, he threatened to either reduce their marks in exam or die by suicide if they revealed his messages to others. Fearing this, the students had hid his torture."

They said the accused teacher reportedly misbehaved with some students after regular classes began. Following awareness programmes held in the wake of a class 11 girl dying by suicide after a teacher allegedly sexually harassed her, the girls in the Vellalore school shared the messages of the computer teacher with their classmates. The classmates collected the evidence of the teacher's chat with the girls and handed it over, along with a complaint, to the headmistress seeking to transfer him to another school. However, the teacher had gone on leave ever since, the teachers said.

A second-level educational official told TNIE, "In a meeting that was held in Chennai after the class 11 student’s suicide, the educational officials were instructed not to inquire sexual harassment complaints in schools but forward it to the childline officer. Following that instruction, we did not conduct an inquiry into this complaint at Vellalore school.”

A teacher, seeking anonymity, said, "If educational officials had inquired immediately, they could have expedited legal action against the teacher. The failure to do so only indicates that they have failed in their duty."

Palli Kalvi Paathukappu Iyakkam’s Coimbatore district coordinator C Chandrasekar said, "This issue shows that an internal complaint committee is not functioning in the school. The headmistress and the officials are unaware of the committee. How will the students be safe if the officials do not follow the instructions?" He alleged many other schools too did not have internal complaint committees even after the School Education department instructed them to form the committees.

According to sources, though there are procedures laid out for the school administration to follow in such cases, those in the Vellalore school failed to act against the computer teacher for over a week. Only then the students took to protests following which the teacher was suspended.

When contacted, Chief Educational Officer N Geetha said, "The teacher has been arrested and we have taken steps to provide psychological counselling to the students. Necessary steps would be taken to avoid such incidents in the future.