The sexual harassment case from Chennai's PSBB Senior Secondary School opened a can of worms — students and alumni from various schools across the city has come out with allegations of similar harrowing tales of what they had to go through. A Commerce teacher from Maharishi Vidya Mandir Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Ayanavaram has been suspended pending enquiry after social media, especially Instagram was flooded with accusations of sexual harassment against him.
In the PSBB case, that unfolded this week, the police had taken suo moto cognisance and filed an FIR to finally arrest the accused teacher. The TN government has also said that those accused in POCSO cases will be investigated thoroughly.
The teacher allegedly "slapped the boys like pigs to show off in front of girls", used the excuse of a 'father-daughter-like relationship' to touch girls inappropriately, body-shamed his students and even abused their mother on the basis of the colour of their skin. Once these allegations came up, one of his students had texted him the screenshots and he is believed to have defended himself saying that he had no such intentions and his Commerce students should know. But the school, which is presumably under a lot of pressure since the PSBB case blew up, has suspended the teacher on May 26 pending an enquiry by an Internal Committee.
In an open letter to the parents and students, the school management said that the students are like their own children and their safety is of utmost importance to the school. "We will never tolerate any abuse, misconduct, misbehaviour or harassment by anyone against our students," said the letter and added that the alumni are as important ot them as the current students. "The enquiry will be fair and transparent and all complaints and allegations received will be referred to the Committee for its enquiry," it read.
