PSBB suspends teacher accused of sexual harassment

Several students — past and present — had levelled allegations against a teacher for sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour with students in school.
Silhouette of a man
Silhouette of a man
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Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan (PSBB) School, Chennai suspended a teacher after several allegations of sexual harassment were levelled against him by current and former students of the school. The school appears to have taken the call after over 1,000 alumni exerted pressure demanding a full inquiry into the issue. In an internal communique reportedly to the teacher himself, the management stated that he is suspended with immediate effect. “Some very serious allegations of misconduct have been alleged against you and the same has come to the knowledge of the management from and through social media,” the communique said. This has also been confirmed by Y Gee Mahendran, one of the Trustees of the school’s Board to a Tamil news channel in which he said that the teacher has been suspended pending inquiry.

Since Sunday evening, several present and past students of PSBB have come out with allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour against a teacher of PSBB school. The teacher has been accused of touching students inappropriately, making comments on students bodies, slut-shaming students, asking a student out, turning up to online class topless, wearing just a towel around his waist, sharing links to pornography with his students.

It all began with an Instagram user and a former student of PSBB, Kripali, sharing an instance of sexual harassment one of her acquaintances experienced at the school from this teacher. Moments after that, several students shared their own experiences, thus sparking a barrage of allegations of similar misbehaviour from him. Following this, over 1,000 alumni including prominent names like actor Lakshmipriyaa Chandramoul and the CEO of AGS Cinemas Archana Kalpathi voiced their support for the survivors and demanded strict action against the teacher.

Several politicians also joined the demand for justice with the likes of DMK’s Kanimozhi, Dayanidhi Maran and Thamizhachi Thangapandian, Congress MP Jothimani and PMK’s Ramadoss demanding justice in the matter. DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran also wrote to the Union Minister for Education seeking appropriate investigation into the matter and to probe lapses in the mechanism that is there to address similar issues.

NOTE: TNM has not yet named the teacher accused of sexual harassment because we were not able to independently speak to any of the survivors. The story will be updated once we are able to independently verify the allegations.

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