Following the arrest of a year a government school teachers in Annur, the School Education Department on Wednesday has suspended the teacher for allegedly harassing students. Further, it has now come to light that 15 students had put sexual harassment complaints about this teacher in a complaint box available in the school campus. S Natarajan (50) from Ellappalayam near Annur was a science teacher fro class VI to VIII, for the last 23 years in a government higher secondary school. Base
Based on the complaint from a 12-year-old girl student of sexual harassment by Natarajan, the Thudiyalur police had arrested and booked a case under the POCSO act on Saturday. According to the sources from School Education Department (SED), in December 2019, a teacher reportedly pinched classes VII, VIII girl students causing marks on their body parts. Students felt that it was a bad touch. After that, nearly 15 students wrote a complaint against a teacher regarding sexual harassment. These students had also complained to Childline officials over the phone.Sources said, "The respective officials rushed to the school and inquired about sexual harassment with the students and teachers. and informed the SED officials about this serious issue. Later, SS Kulam District Educational Officer (DEO) R Geetha inquired with the students about sexual harassment. Only a few students accepted it and majority of them stated that no such incidents happened with them. Geetha collected a letter from the students that stated Natarajan did not harass them."
Only one student has lodged a complaint against the teacher with police seeking legal action. When asked about this, DEO Geetha said, "When I inquired the students in school, they had told given contradictory information about teacher. The allegation was not proved on the teacher and we could not take action against him."
CEO P Ayyananan said, "This issue came to my knowledge after police arrested the teacher. However, our officials had inquired the school students and other teachers. Now, we are going through the inquiry report prepared by Geetha." Another teacher in the school said that following police action, Natarajan has been suspended by the officials on Wednesday.
