TEAM HERALD
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VASCO: An outcry by parents compelled the management of the Vasco School to suspend a teacher and a clerk in connection with tampering evidence, even as the school re-opened on Monday amid tight police and CISF security.
Tension flared up yet again at the Vasco School ~ where the seven-year-old schoolgirl was sexually assaulted in the school toilet ~ when parents went to drop their children at the school.
Parents were stopped at the gate by CISF personnel and children were escorted by the peon and the Ayahs of the school. Teaching and non-teaching staff employees were then made to produce their identity cards and sign the register maintained by the CISF security at the main entrance.
The large number of parents, who had assembled outside the school compound, demanded the suspension of the teacher and the clerk who were accused of washing off the bloodstains and clothes of the victim, especially since the police had registered a case regarding tampering of the evidence.
Fearing that the situation could go out of hand, Mormugao DySP Laurence D’Souza requested the parents to send a group of 12 people to meet the school committee in-charge.
Accepting DySP D’Souza’s suggestion, about 12 parents met an official of the school management and sought to know the outcome of the management-appointed committee to go into the negligence of the staff in connection with the incident.
They also sought to know whether CCTVs were installed in the school and insisted on the suspension of the teacher and the non-teaching staff pending departmental inquiry.
“If both the staffers are found not guilty, we will welcome them back into the school,” said a parent.
They also demanded the dissolution of the school PTA and the appointment of a new team to handle day-to-day functioning of the school. The parents also demanded that the office of the headmistress be shifted to the ground floor.
Responding to the various demands of the parents, the official said the management-appointed committee was still conducting a probe into the incident.
“Once the process is completed, the report will be placed before the parents during a meeting. We have already fitted 14 CCTVs at different locations which will capture footage during school hours,” the official told the members.
The official stated that he cannot comment on dissolution of the PTA without his senior’s approval. However, he assured that he would place the demand before his senior officials.
He also informed the parents that the office of the headmistress had already been shifted elsewhere, but said it could take some time for the headmistress to function from there due to some carpentry work.
The official then submitted the demands of the parents to the school management, who later approved the suspension of the teacher and the clerk.
The official then directed the teacher and the clerk to resume duty only after inquiry against them is completed. Later, both the employees were escorted out of the school premises with police protection.
