A nine-year-old girl, B Vinoothna, studying in Oxford Grammar School in Himayatnagar, Hyderabad was allegedly beaten by her class teacher for not plaiting her hair, as per the school dress code. Following a police complaint from her parents, the teacher was suspended from the school.
The incident took place on July 19, when the class teacher Seetalakshmi allegedly thrashed Vinoothna for wearing a ponytail instead of plaiting her hair. Further, the teacher allegedly challenged her to complain to her parents as usual.
“She beat her badly, she caught hold her of neck and pushed her outside the class and said, ‘you have a habit of complaining about teachers to your parents, right? go tell them now,’” alleged, the victim’s mother Nandini.
She told TNM, “There are bruises on her face and hands. What if she had accidentally hit her eyes? Will the school compensate for it?”
Nandini said that this was the third instance where her child was physically punished. “Previously in class I and III she was beaten for frivolous reasons. When we protested, the school administration claimed that the teachers were new and promised to train them. After their assurance we left the matter. But the repeat of such incidents proved to us that the management is not serious about children being harassed,” she said.
“What warrants the beating of a child?” the mother asked. “We never beat up our kid. If she did not adhere to their rules, shouldn’t the teacher complain about it to us, or write about it in the school diary, so that we take corrective measures? Beating a kid is inhuman,” Nandini said.
Though the parents filed a police complaint, they allege that no action was taken on the basis of it. Therefore, they approached Balala Hakkula Sangham (BHS) – a child welfare NGO.
BHS later approached the Hyderabad Commissioner and filed a complaint, following which the accused teacher was removed from the school.
Giving a clarification over the incident, the school told BHS that Vinoothna was punished for doing not doing her homework, and not for wearing a ponytail.
Speaking to TNM BHS president Achyuta Rao said, “That clarification is ridiculous. Even if the kid did not do her homework, she should not be beaten as punishment. The school should counsel their teachers about it. A programme to test the teachers’ psychology already exists in most of the schools, those tests should be conducted periodically to avert such incidents.”