The allegations of sexual harassment against a teacher belonging to the Padma Sheshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School has snowballed with students and alumni of more private schools in Chennai coming out with accusations of sexual misconduct against teachers. Various accounts from students have been surfacing Twitter and Instagram since Monday, after G Rajagopal, the teacher in question, was arrested by the Chennai police.
Now, a group of alumni from a few Chennai schools have created a Google Form called Chennai Schools Reporting Initiative, allowing students to anonymously report instances of inappropriate behaviour by their school staff. An Instagram user who is believed to be one of the people with access to the answers say that she has received around 70 testimonials from students and alumni until now.
She says that they created the form because they felt that screenshots and messages aren't systematic and that there is a need to collate the experiences of the students. In her Instagram story, she also adds that the makers of the form hope to reach out to the students and want to work towards getting the issues covered.
"Why are we asking for this information? We believe that sexually and otherwise generally inappropriate behaviour and language are rampant across these schools, but the schools, parents and even students are unaware of how common it is. As a result, action has not been taken. This creates a toxic and unsafe learning environment for students of all ages, across all schools here in Chennai," reads the form.
Rajagopal's arrest came as a result of a series of events following posts by another Instagrammer, Kripali M, who shared anonymous accounts from students complaining about his inappropriate behaviour.
