Cane & get sacked

Updated on: Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Three days after La Martiniere for Boys principal Sunirmal Chakravarthy publicly admitted to caning Rouvanjit Rawla, the school management altered its service rules and laid down stricter penalties for those who break it. Teachers found guilty of corporal punishment will, henceforth, be suspended or even sacked without warning, the management announced on June 18.

A committee, comprising schoolteachers and parents’ representatives, might be set up to suggest alternative measures to discipline students.

Chakravarthy had been found guilty of caning students in an internal inquiry after Rouvanjit’s suicide, but was let off with just a warning. The principal is under police investigation for abetting the Class VIII student’s suicide after the boy’s father Ajay Rawla filed an FIR.

Addressing a press meet, Lt Gen J Mukherjee, member, board of governors at La Martiniere, said offenders will no longer be simply warned. “So far, we followed the practice of issuing a warning for minor mistakes. But from now on, those found guilty of corporal punishment will face penalty straightway,” he said. The penal action includes suspension, withholding increment, demotion and dismissal from service.

Under the earlier service rules, the school rebuked an offender for the first violation, issued a warning for a second and ordered suspension for a third. But it was made clear that the new rules won’t be applicable to the caning case.

In the internal probe into Rouvanjit’s death, the governing body had acknowledged that Chakravarthy’s caning of the boy was an act of misconduct under the staff service rules and school regulations. But the panel had simultaneously attempted to defend the act by arguing that the school authorities had “disciplined Rouvanjit the way they would have disciplined any other student, failing which there will be no discipline in the school at all”.

Even in a press release issued by governing body secretary Supriyo Dhar last week, an attempt was made to justify the need for corrective measures to ensure “the environment is not vitiated in the interest of the larger student community of the school”. Mukherjee’s latest statement has clarified that the board has since reviewed its stand.

On the Rouvanjit case, Mukherjee said: “So far as the particular incident of caning is concerned, the law of the land will take its course.”

The new rules lay down that no physical abuse or mental torture of students will be allowed. Students can now lodge a complaint against any teacher to a redressal committee that will soon be formed. Another committee, with representatives from teachers and parents will look into complaints, matters and issues relating to discipline. It will address parents’ problems as well.

“The suspension order may or may not bar a teacher from future employment opportunities depending on the gravity of the offence and the degree of violation,” added Mukherjee.

The decision came a day after the school governing body met parents on the campus to explain the school’s stand on corporal punishment that had been rather ambiguous with the school authorities maintaining a stoic silence on why it was practiced at La Martiniere for Boys despite being banned by the law.

STEPS TAKEN

>> Teachers guilty of corporal punishment will be suspended or sacked without warning depending on the gravity of the crime

>> They may face demotion or withholding of increment as well

>> Committee of teachers and parents’ representatives to suggest alternative ways of enforcing discipline

>> No physical abuse or mental torture of students will be allowed

>> Students can lodge a complaint against any teacher to a committee for redress

>> Another panel, with teachers’ and parents’ representatives, to look into complaints & issues relating to discipline

Cane & get sacked

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