Teacher suspended for slapping girl who wrote wrong roll number

In two separate incidents, the school authorities suspended two teachers who beat up their students for not obeying them. A teacher of St Stephen’s School in Dum Dum was suspended for beating up a Class IV student for writing wrong roll number on the answer script.

The mother of the student alleged that her daughter forgot to write her roll number on the answer script on Wednesday. The teacher scolded her and following that she wrote 3 instead of 34 which is her roll number. Thinking that the student was disobeying her, the teacher beat her up.

She bled profusely through the ear. When her mother went to pick her up from school, she found the girl crying.

On inquiry she came to know about the incident. The mother alleged that the teacher said she had lost her temper and had beaten up the girl for disobeying her.

The girl was taken to a hospital for treatment. The hospital authorities said that she was yet to come out of the shock and trauma. A complaint was lodged with the Dum Dum police station.

As the news spread, the parents of other students staged a demonstration outside the school demanding stringent action against the teacher. They said that she should be sacked as she had no right to become a teacher.

The school authorities said they had suspended the teacher and an inquiry would be initiated on her.

In another incident, another teacher in Katwa in Burdwan district was suspended for beating up a Class I student. The father of the student alleged that the teacher had beaten up his son with a “ruler” on the basis of some allegations made by other parents. The father said his son was “not naughty at all and the allegations against him are baseless.” The student is suffering from trauma and had to be taken to a hospital.

Ratnabali Roy, a social worker said corporal punishment was a serious offence and it was most unfortunate that the teachers had to take recourse to beatings in order to discipline their students.

“Most of the teachers are not trained and unfortunately they vent out their anger on their students,” she said adding that the teachers should always realise that by punishing them physically they were doing more harm to the students than good.