Hyderabad: In a shocking incident, physical education instructor Ramakanth of St Francis Girls High School, Secunderabad allegedly made a Class 6 student run 60 laps around the school ground as a punishment. He did not relent even when the student, B.M. Madhurika, complained of breathing problems, her father, Mr B.P. Anil Kumar said.
Hundreds of members from the parents and students associations held a protest at the school on Monday following the incident that occurred on July 19.
Mr Anil Kumar said, “My daughter suffered a breathing problem while running and informed the PT instructor that she was facing breathing issues and cried due to chest pain. Instead of considering her request, he instructed her to follow his command.”
He said Madhurika complained of chest and body pains after she reached home, and the family rushed her to a doctor. The medical reports said she was suffering from muscular pain. He wanted the school to remove Mr Ramakanth and do justice to his daughter. The school said it had appointed staff, including two male physical education teachers, three counsellors and male coaches for basketball, volleyball, karate and taekwondo. “We never had any issues with them,” it said. The school has about 50 CCTV cameras on the campus.
Regarding the incident, the school said that Mr Arun Kumar “magnified the issue and called a few groups of parents and asked for the dismissal of the teacher. The management thinks it is unfair to rusticate a person without any proof. The headmistress checked the CCTV footage and found that the child was not following the rules of the warm-up exercises taught by the teacher.”
“The footage shows that the girl was hardly running and within 20 minutes of the class it rained and the children were made to sit. So the headmistress feels it’s a false allegation as recording is available.” The school said the student was irregular and the parent had not given prior information about health issues.
Child rights activist Achyuta Rao said, “This punishment is a case of cruelty against kids and violation of Juvenile Justice Act. This act of the instructor is criminal intimidation and there is irresponsibility of the management.”
