Chennai: After a school teacher in Chennai was suspended and arrested for multiple allegations of sexual harassment levelled by his students, here is another case of students of a different school in Chennai came forward to complaint against a commerce teacher of having sexually harassed and intimidated them for years.
Sources said that the complainants include current and ex-students. The school's alumni association has said that they have received more than 500 messages against the teacher from students of various batches. After these allegations on social media and through an e-mail sent by the alumni association, the school's management has suspended the accused teacher.
The management said that they have taken cognisance of the allegations and they are referring the same to the internal committee for its inquiry and report. The inquiry will be fair and transparent and all complaints and allegations received, as well as those that may be received, will be referred to the committee for its inquiry and report.
"We understand the feelings expressed, and our students may be rest assured that suitable action will be taken upon receipt of the inquiry report," the management added.
The accused teacher has been placed under suspension pending inquiry.
The management further said that they have also directed him not to contact or interact with any former or present student of the school. The well-being and welfare of the students, whom they consider as their own children, have always been and will be of paramount importance and concern to them.
"We will never tolerate any abuse, misconduct, misbehaviour or harassment by anyone against our students," the school's management said in its statement," added the management.
According to the reports, the accused teacher was dismissed from another school in Chennai for misbehaving with girl students. The school's alumni said that the present situation wouldn't have occurred had the previous school filed a police complaint or the school's management conducted a background check before hiring him.
Here are some of the crimes that the teacher did to his students, according to the e-mails sent by current and ex-students:
• He forced students to sit on his lap posing him as a 'fatherly figure' and also kiss them 'friendlily.'
• He harassed students mentally, physically, and emotionally by touching girl students inappropriately in the name of being a father.
• He used to spanking students in classrooms and corridors for various reasons in the name of disciplining them.
• Apart from harassing girl students, the teacher also physically assaulted boys brutally and called them out in "uncouth words in front of the entire classroom, shaming the student, and gaslighting them if complained."
• Since he was also a class teacher, he had access to students' personal information like their phone numbers, their parents' phone numbers, their address etc. and he misused this information.
• He inappropriately texted multiple girl students, and when students refused to reply, he would threaten them with retaliations.
• He hugs without consent, puts arms around a girl student in the name of monitoring what she is doing on her desk or writing in her notebook.
• He also invited students to his private residence in the name of private coaching and tried to misbehave with multiple girl students openly.
"A student was asked to report to class at 7:00 AM via SMS before regular class hours i.e. 7:30 AM. To the student's shock and horror, she had been the only student called out. The teacher had tried to misbehave with the student by kissing her and molesting her, and when rushed to complain, the student's cry had been brushed off as a false accusation. Eventually, the student was detained in her 11th grade, slapped, and physically assaulted multiple times by this teacher," the alumni association wrote by narrating a girl student's experience.
"The lack of observation and supervision from the school authority can be the only sole reason that fuels a schoolteacher to go to this extent. [The teacher] has indulged himself in such classes voluntarily, by picking out specific girl students regardless of their academic performance to stay back at such late hours. Subsequently, multiple incidents of hugging, kissing, making the child sit on his lap during these hours have been escalated to the school management," the alumni association added.
The association has demanded that the accused teacher should be booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, and the Indian Penal Code for charges of rape, sexual harassment, criminal intimidation, among others.
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