Bengaluru school suspends two students for 'indiscipline', probe ordered

The Karnataka State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (KCPCR) has ordered an inquiry against a top Bengaluru school after it suspended two high school students for “indiscipline”.

The commission has asked the deputy director of public instruction (DDPI), Bengaluru South, to visit Ryan International School on Bannerghatta Road and submit a report, documents with DH show.

The school placed two students who are siblings - one in class 9 and another in class 10 - under suspension on November 19 “until further notice”.

When contacted, school principal Preeti Seth declined to comment.

Based on the complaint from the boys’ father, the commission described the school’s action as ‘uncivil’ and that it violated the Right to Education (RTE) Act, specifically Section 16 (prohibition of holding back and expulsion) and Section 17 (prohibition of physical punishment and mental harassment to child). The RTE Act defines ‘child’ as those aged 6 to 14 years.

The school suspended the two boys for ‘indiscipline, disrupting the functioning of the school regularly, disrespecting and threatening the principal, teachers and fellow students’.

In his complaint, the father alleged that his sons - studying in the school for nine years - were being ‘targeted’ for the past six months.

“The principal slapped our children and always used to threaten to send them out and harassed them by reducing the internal assessment marks,” the parent claimed. He urged the commission to have the suspension revoked.

Commission chairperson K Naganna Gowda said he had issued a notice to the school, while directing the DDPI to submit a report. “We will initiate action once we receive a report from the DDPI,” Gowda said.

According to child rights activist Nagasimha G Rao, schools should look at ways of counselling children, to avoid suspension.

“Schools must provide counselling to children who are problematic. They should help such children to overcome bad behaviour,” he said.

Established in 2007, Ryan International School, Bannerghatta Road, is an ICSE Montessori-XII co-ed school. It is run by Mumbai-headquartered Ryan International Group of Institutions.