A video in which Class 10 students of a Karnataka school could be seen "harassing" an elderly teacher at the classroom by putting a dustbin on his head has gone viral on the social media. The teacher, Prakash, who has a year’s service left before retirement is seen teaching Hindi, while a group of students in Nalluru Government High school in Channagiri taluk of Davanagere district starts teasing him.
After this, the teacher continues to face the blackboard and write. A group of three boys then gather around the teacher and one of them puts a dustbin on the teacher’s head and hits it before running back to their benches. However, the teacher calmly removes the dustbin from his head and places it aside on the ground and continues to teach. Again, one of the students heads back and tries pulling his clothes as he faces the board.
In another part of the video when the teacher is sitting on a chair teaching, three students again surround him and continue to heckle him. The student capturing the video asks one of the students to move aside a little so he can get a ‘better shot’ of the incident. Following this, immediately, one of the students goes to hit the teacher with the dustbin but puts the dustbin back on his head. The other students in the class can be heard celebrating when the incident took place.
After the shocking video of the incident went viral, local MLA Madal Virupakshappa and others visited the school and inquired about the incident.
Afterwards, the leaders of a student organisation called the students, and told them to respect the teachers. On being asked the reason behind their act, the students said others "pushed them" to do it.
The students were admonished and asked to touch the feet of the teacher and apologise. The teacher forgave them with a smile on his face, and asked them not to repeat such an act with any other teacher in future.
Karnataka Education Minister BC Nagesh took to Twitter to condemn the incident and said, “The heckling and assault on a teacher by some students at the high school in Davanagere’s Channagiri taluk is condemnable. Such incidents cannot be tolerated. Regarding this, the Education Department officials and police are investigating. They have been asked to take appropriate action. The Education Department will always be with teachers.”
With IANS inputs