NEW DELHI: A day after the alleged sexual assault incident in a Delhi Government School surfaced, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday directed the Education director to immediately suspend the concerned teachers and principal.
“While the criminal proceedings into the matter will continue, disciplinary action should be initiated against the teachers and principal for failing to report the matter to the police,” Kejriwal on Tuesday. Calling it a ‘deeply disturbing’ act, Kejriwal has also directed to ensure rigorous training of all the principals and teachers on provisions of POCSO, mandatory reporting, tools for early identification of abuse on children and remedial measures enabling capacity building of teachers to support such students.
Besides, the Chief Minister has also asked the education department to prepare high-quality material for reference of all teachers and principals and issue guidelines for schools to handle causes of abuse in a supportive environment for children. Meanwhile, education minister Atishi said, “It is our responsibility to ensure that all children are safe and secure in our schools, and if any such instance of child sexual abuse are brought to light, then appropriate legal action has to be taken. We have to take all possible steps to ensure that such an instance is not repeated in our schools.”
However, opposing the suspension of the teachers and principal, the general secretary of the Government School Teachers Association (GSTA) said, “I strongly condemn this decision because I believe teachers and principals are themselves under tremendous pressure in such situations. By suspending teachers and principals for no fault of theirs, the government is apparently tarnishing the image of the teachers. There is no fear left among the students.”
According to the police, two boys of a government school in northwest Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy were allegedly sexually assaulted by their classmates. The alleged incident took place in April during a summer camp organized by the school, they added. Separate complaints were filed by the two boys, aged 12 and 13 years where they alleged that they were sexually assaulted by five to six classmates. Also, the two cases were registered in connection with the matter.
The 13-year-old victim, a student of class 8 had alleged that during summer camp in April; his classmates forcefully took him to a park and sexually assaulted him. They had also threatened the boy to not to disclose it to anyone. A few days ago when the boys started troubling him, he told his teachers about the incident who asked him not to tell anyone about this, they said, adding the victim informed his parents who later made a PCR call and a case was registered on Sunday.
