Team Herald
SANGUEM: Several students of a Sanguem school were taken ill on Friday, after a teacher made them run 265 rounds of the school grounds in the scorching sun, as punishment for being noisy in class. After half an hour in the mid-morning heat, some students fainted, while others began to vomit. One student started having breathing problems and had to be admitted to the Sanguem PHC for treatment.
The incident took place at Miracles High School, Sanguem. The students of Class seven were making noise during the third period, which agitated teacher Keagan Gomes who was teaching in the ninth standard classroom. He took all the 45 students of Class 7 out, and asked them to take 265 rounds in the sun. He also appointed a Class 9 student to keep watch over the children, in case someone stops running.
The students started to lose consciousness and some of them began to vomit. One student named Frenwil Fernandes started to face difficulty in breathing and was taken to the Sanguem PHC where doctors gave him oxygen, and discharged him after treatment.
Worried parents rushed to the school and demanded an apology from Gomes. However, the teacher defended himself, and said that he had issued stricter punishments than this. As the situation kept escalating, school principal Filasto Furtado assured the parents that he would convene a meeting to discuss the issue.
“Who gave the teacher permission to issue such strict punishment? Nobody paid attention while the children were fainting and falling down. This is carelessness. The children had not committed a crime to deserve such a cruel punishment,” said Kajmira Dias, a parent.
Later, the teacher, Keagan Gomes, was summoned to the Sanguem police station and asked to give a written assurance that he would not repeat such corporal punishment, after the parents filed a police complaint.
