Hundreds storm Namakkal school

NAMAKKAL: Joined in by members of the public, hundreds of parents on Monday virtually stormed the headmaster’s office in the Government girls higher secondary school at the power-looms centre of Pallipalayam near here, demanding action against some miscreants who tried to stab a girl student while allegedly trying to take pictures of the girl in a dilapidated toilet in the school.

Police said with the school’s toilet at the rear in bad shape, there have been complaints of miscreants taking advantage of the partly uncovered structure to take obscene pictures of unwary girls using the toilet with their cell cameras.

In the latest instance last Thursday, four masked men had similarly tried to take a picture of one of the school girls in the toilet who fled on spotting them. But the miscreants sought to pursue her and tried to stab her with a knife. The girl’s uniform got slashed in the process. She ran and reached the headmaster’s room with her torn cloth. The poor girl barely narrated the horror when she fainted.

Later, when the affected girl told her parents about it, they sought an explanation from the school authorities. The latter, however, reportedly advised the parents not to file a police complaint as it would bring ‘bad name’ to the school.

People of Pallipalayam town were enraged as they heard this story and today marched in hundreds along with aggrieved parents, demanding action to arrest the four miscreants and provide decent toilets to the girls. They also demanded action to eliminate sale of cheap liquor and drugs near the school, which the people alleged had emboldened miscreants to abuse school girls.