Sexual harassment case: Committee grills school authorities for 3 hours
Fresh row over circular asking parents to join online classes
Management of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan (PSBB) Senior Secondary School including its principal Friday appeared before the Tamil Nadu Commission for Protection of Child Rights in connection with a sexual harassment case. This is the second time the school authorities were appearing before the commission after its Commerce teacher G Rajagopalan was arrested based on complaints from girl students.
Commission chairperson Saraswathi Rangaswamy said the inquiry lasted for three hours. “The management cooperated well. Once the inquiry is completed, a report will be sent to the government. Till then we may not be able to disclose the details,” she said.
Meanwhile, a communique from the school management to parents asking them to be present during the online classes evoked criticism. In a circular, the management of the school said: “To make our online classes more secure, as a new initiative this year, we would request parents to come forward to be present during the online classes of their respective wards. A monthly roster would then be made and shared. The volunteer could log in at a time convenient to them on the specified date”.
S Arumainathan, president, Tamil Nadu Parents-Teachers Association (TNPTA) wondered how come the management of the school could add parents to the online classes. “This is totally against the guidelines of the government. With parents already under severe pressure after sexual harassment case getting reported in the school, they (management) are adding further burden by involving them in online classes,” he added.
KR Nandhakumar, general secretary of Tamil Nadu Private Nursery, Primary, Matriculation, Higher Secondary, and CBSE Schools Association, said parents should not be involved in the online classes. “This is practically not possible,” he said adding “recording the online classes as per the guidelines of the government was more than enough to curb harassment irregularities”.