St Alphonsa Public School, Aruvithura in Kottayam was in the eye of a storm recently over the new design of its school uniform which some termed as ‘vulgar’. Following the outrage, it has now decided to change the uniform.
After a Facebook post called the uniform ‘vulgar’, the school had received a barrage of complaints online - mostly from men - but the teachers of the school had maintained that the uniform was well-designed.
Now the school has informed that they will change the uniform design for girl students from class 5 to 10 as the students were depressed over the incident. Instead of a half jacket, which had led to the controversy, the girls will wear an overcoat. The school also informed that the management will bear all the expenses for it.
“We have not done any wrong. It was the PTA that selected the design and got it stitched three months ago. We have not received any complaints from the parents regarding the uniform till now. However, we are all worried about the controversy and the children are upset. So we have decided to make a change to the uniform,” PTA president Sabu Cyriac told The New Indian Express.
It all began when a photographer, Zachariah Ponkunnam, posted an image on his Facebook wall of three girls wearing the uniform of St Alphonsa Public School, Aruvithura. In the post, he stated that the school uniform was designed obscenely. The post went viral and many social media users came down heavily on the school authorities, alleging that the uniform was indecent.
The school management had claimed earlier that the image which went viral in social media was photoshopped.
Even Sabu Cyriac told TNIE that the photo was fabricated as the uniform in the photo was completely different from the original one.
However, the school has filed a police complaint against the defamatory campaign.
The viral post was shared and commented on mainly by men. Many of them had been making rather vulgar comments and posting obscene pictures and memes to fight the perceived 'vulgarity' of the uniform.
But many others had posted the original photo of the uniform and had claimed that there was no vulgarity in the uniform.