Tamil Nadu school student kills self alleging sexual harassment; accused teacher held

The incident comes months after students of several reputed schools in Chennai opened up about sexual assaults and harassment by teachers

The suicide of a 17-year-old student at a reputed school in Coimbatore due to alleged sexual assault by one of her teachers and the lackadaisical attitude of the management to take action despite a complaint has sent shockwaves across Tamil Nadu.

While the teacher, 31-year-old Mithun Chakravarthi, was arrested on November 12, the principal of the school, Meera Jackson, was picked up by a special team of the Coimbatore Police from Bengaluru on Sunday morning from her hideout.

Both the teacher and principal of Chinmaya Vidyalaya have been booked under various sections of the POCSO Act. The 17-year-old had written in her suicide note that “no one should be spared” with her classmates and friends alleging that the management failed to act against Chakravarthi.

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This, the classmates said, despite the student's complaints against the teacher to the principal who is learnt to have told her not to “make a big issue” out of it.

WhatsApp chats and phone conversations between the student and the teacher hint at the level of harassment the young girl had gone through after the alleged sexual assault by Chakravarthi, her friends said.

The parents and friends of the girl accepted to receive her body on Sunday after the principal was arrested – they had refused to accept her body since Friday.

School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi and Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji visited the girl’s parents on Sunday morning and assured speedy justice. Chief Minister M K Stalin took to Twitter on Saturday to hand out an assurance that all accused in the case will be brought to justice.

Poyyamozhi said private schools should be proactive in acting complaints of sexual assault or harassment against teachers by students and create awareness on the issue. He also asked students to make use of a helpline run by the government to lodge complaints of sexual harassment in schools.

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The girl, who never spoke about the sexual assault with her parents, convinced them to get her transferred out of Chinmaya Vidyalaya to a different school two months ago.

“She kept asking us to change the school, but she never told us the reason. Only now, we understand what she might have gone through for the past few months. Those responsible should be punished,” the girl’s mother told the media.

The incident comes months after students of several reputed schools in Chennai opened up about sexual assaults and harassment at the hands of teachers. A teacher of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhagavan Senior Secondary School (PSBB) and founder of Sushil Hari International Residential School, Shivashankar Baba, were arrested under POCSO Act.

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