The events in the last ten days have shaken her completely. A student of a private Islamic school in Ahmedabad’s walled city area, the girl was stripped, then locked in the school toilet for several hours and made to clean it by her teacher – all because of her bad handwriting.
The shocking case of child brutality in the Shahpur Islamic school, run by a private trust, came to light on Monday, when the parents lodged a police complaint against the accused teacher Zeba who has been arrested. Though the child was subjected to the humiliation almost ten days back, she could not reveal it to her parents as the teacher had threatened her not to reveal anything.
“She loved going to school. But in the last 10 days we noticed some change in her behaviour. She shuddered at the name of school. She broke down on Monday when her mother was giving her a bath, revealing what had happened to her,’’ Survar Hussain, the father told Deccan herald. Sama’s friend who had witnessed the ‘punishment’ corroborated the story.
The aggrieved parents along with other guardians approached the school authorities who refrained from entertaining the complaints, following which the parents filed an FIR at Shahpur police station against the teacher as well as the trustee of the school Iqbal Patel (68) and his wife Rihanna (32), who is the principal of the school.
“This is not the only incident of this nature but several such incidents have been taking place in the school,” Hussain said.
While the trustee and the principal could not be contacted, District Education Officer R I Patel said that the department has taken cognisance of the matter and will institute an enquiry into it.