Teacher's suspension: Diocese of Mangalore seeks justice

Diocese has urged the authorities to probe into the allegations and safeguard her dignity as a teacher and a woman.

Mangaluru: Diocese of Mangalore has appealed the officials of Minority Department, Child Welfare Department, and Women's Commission to conduct a fair inquiry into the unfortunate and distressing events that took place at St Gerosa English Higher Primary School in Mangaluru recently and investigate the traumatic treatment meted out to the women teachers and children by the MLA. 

Diocese Public Relation Officers Fr J B Saldanha and Roy Casteino have urged the authorities to probe into the false allegations against the English teacher and safeguard her dignity as a teacher and a woman.

The Diocese of Mangalore has expressed deep concern over the unfair treatment of the teacher, students and the school by an elected people’s representative and his people.

"It is important to throw light on what actually happened. The English Teacher was teaching Rabindranath Tagore's poem “Work is Worship" and she was explaining the lines “Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of the temple with doors all shut?" (English Syllabus of 7th Standard State Board, Karnataka). She neither taught nor stated anything derogatory, " the release said.

The release said  a group of individuals gathered around the school at 12:30 pm on Monday  and the headmistress had assured them that proper inquiry would be conducted to address the matter.

Later that afternoon, the sisters from the school wrote to the district administration stating that the audio messages were far from the truth, and they sought protection from any untoward incident.

However, the situation escalated when local MLA  Vedavyas Kamath led a protest against the school exhibiting disregard for the constitutional process of a fair inquiry. He insisted on an immediate apology and suspension of the English teacher.

When the children came out of the campus, the MLA prompted them to chant religious verses and raise slogans against the teacher. The school management, under immense pressure, suspended the teacher, pending an inquiry, to maintain law and order and ensure the safety of the student community, the release explained.