Allegations of sexual harassment from more schools in Bengal

KOLKATA: THE INCIDENTS COME LESS THAN A FORTNIGHT AFTER THE CITY WAS ROCKED BY SIMILAR ALLEGATIONS AGAINST A DANCE TEACHER OF A PRIMARY SCHOOL

There seems to be no end to sexual harassment of small children in schools in the state.

A teacher of a high school in Kolkata was arrested on Tuesday night on charges of harassing a class 5 student. On Wednesday morning, a section of guardians began agitating in front of another high school in Howrah, alleging a non-teaching employee had been harassing a class 2 student for about a month.

The incidents come less than a fortnight after the city was rocked by similar allegations against a dance teacher of a primary school and a non-teaching employee of another high school in the city.

Sections of POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) were slapped against Atanu Dasgupta, who is a teacher of physical science in the Kolkata school. Police also arrested Susanta Das, the non-teaching employee, of the Howrah school. “The headmistress asked me to furnish proof. I don’t want what happened with my daughter to be repeated with anyone else. Therefore, I want punishment for Das and the headmistress,” the mother of the class 2 student of the Howrah school said.

The authorities in the Kolkata school said they would take action. “The school managing committee will decide on the course of action with the teacher. He was initially let off after submitting an undertaking in presence,” said a member of the school managing committee.

Dasgupta was arrested after a complaint was lodged by the parents of a class 5 student on Tuesday evening. However, in the afternoon, the teacher was let off after he submitted an undertaking in presence of the local councillor Shipra Ghatak.

The allegation against Dasgupta was that he told the students that if they can’t answer questions, they have to kiss him. One of the students, who objected to the ‘punishment’, was asked to do sit-ups 250 times.

But she fell ill after performing it 110 times. She went home and narrated it to her parents.

On the other hand, Kolkata Police added section 6 of POCSO Act against Soumen Rana, a dance teacher who had been arrested earlier.

It has provisions for jail terms from 10 years to life term. Earlier, section 10 that has provisions of jail terms between 5 to 7 years, was slapped against him.

On February 20, both Rana and Malay Barua, a non-teaching employee of the high school, were both produced in court. The judges rejected their bail pleas.

In another incident, the vice president of the Trinamool controlled students’ union at a college in the southern outskirts of Kolkata was suspended on Wednesday for allegedly threatening to rape a class 11 student.

The teenage girl complained to the principal in an email. She alleged that Anirul Haldar, the students’ union leader, told her they had every right to rape her.