JOIN USVasant Vihar Modern School insists that it has expelled two students not because they were caught bullying a senior on tape, but for “bringing shame to the institution”.
School trustee Ashok Pratap Singh told Deccan Herald that had the act of these students not gone viral on web, the course of punishment would have been different. “I know many schools and bullying takes place in almost every school. It wasn’t that big a violation to get expelled from an institution,” Singh said. According to him, the students had been expelled for “bringing shame to the school.”
Asked whether this attitude of school authorities has led to the growth of the menace, Singh said, “Every schools has its corrective measures to deal with such issues.”
The video which went viral showed two class 6 students roughing up a class 7 kid while three others were seen cheering them.
“We have to make more stringent efforts to curb such incidents from taking place and we have sought parents cooperation too,” he added. Singh also said it is good that the kids have left the school. “Otherwise they will be looked at by fellow students as a criminals,” he added.
Use of mobile phones by schoolchildren is the other issue highlighted by the incident as the video clip was shot by a student on a cell phone. “We already have a ban on mobile phones in our school, but we will now implement it more vigorously,” Singh said.
Hundreds of parents turned up on Thursday to attend the meeting called by the school management to discuss the matter.
School principals said there should be a proper mechanism to deal with the menace. “Many times kids don’t come forward to report such incidents. So the people responsible to deal with the matter should be made more approachable to children,” said Anju Puri, principal of DAV Public School in Vasant Kunj.
“The environment in a school should be such in which students can learn and grow as individuals. There should be a total ban on cell phones and bullying or any other kind of violence in the school premises,” said L V Sehgal, Principal of Bal Bharati School on Pusa Road.