UP school warden sacked for forcing 70 girls to strip
Warden suspended after 5member panel finds her guilty
Nearly 70 girls of a residential school here were allegedly threatened and forced to strip by the warden to check for menstrual blood. The state government has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
According to a complaint filed by the parents of some of the girls involved, students of Kasturba Gandhi Residential School at Digri village of the district were on Wednesday forced to strip by the warden, who allegedly threatened the students of dire consequences if they disobeyed her command.
The district basic siksha adhikari (BSA) Chander Kesh Yadav said an enquiry has been ordered into the incident.
Uttar Pradesh power minister Shrikant Sharma, on Friday, condemned the incident and said the incident is being probed by the authorities concerned.
“We were informed through the media; the officers concerned have been given instructions to carry out the investigation,” Sharma said.
Besides, district magistrate Dinesh Kumar Singh suspended the warden, Surekha Tomar, after the five-member probe panel submitted its preliminary report.
“There was no teacher around. We were called downstairs (from the hostel). Madam made us take off our clothes saying she will beat us if we did not. We are kids, what could we do? She would have beaten us if we did not obey her,” one of the students said.
Another student said the warden ordered girls to remove their clothes after discovering blood stains in the bathroom.
The warden, however, denied the allegations. “No one asked them to remove their clothes. All this is a conspiracy by the staff because they do not want me to stay here. I had been asked to check whether the staff members were performing their duties properly. I am strict, that is why they hate me,” she said.
Meanwhile, 35 students of the school left after reports of harassment by the warden surfaced. Many students have come forward with similar allegations, Yadav said.
The BSA said he had deputed a team of ABSA level officers to normalise the situation and “soon all the girls, who had left the campus would be readmitted in the school.”
Danielle Mclaughlin, who was found dead near the Palolem beach in Goa on March 14, was laid to rest at a funeral in her hometown of Buncrana, County Donegal, in Ireland, on Thursday. Hundreds of locals and friends paid tributes to her at the funeral.
A post-mortem had concluded that Mclaughlin, 28, died due to brain damage and constriction of the neck.
Her body arrived in Ireland from Goa on Monday. A person named by the Goa police as Vikat Bhagat, 24, has reportedly been charged for murder.
Reports from Ireland said the funeral in the St Mary’s Church, family and friends presented four symbols of her life, including a guitar, a holy medallion from one of Mother Teresa’s care homes in India, a family photo and a poem.
Father Francis Bradley said at the requiem mass that Mclaughlin had made a huge impression on people’s lives: “She was disarmingly kind and forgiving; her warm nature and open heart drew people into her ever-widening, extensive and international circle of friends”.