Today, August 29, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ordered the suspension of teachers and the vice-principal of a government school in northwest Delhi over their alleged failure to report to police the sexual assault of two boys by their classmates. Further, he also directed the Directorate of Education to prepare high-quality material for reference of all teachers and principals and issue guidelines for schools to handle cases of abuse in a supportive environment for children, as stated in a report by PTI.
On the direction of the chief minister, Delhi Education Minister Atishi has written to the Directorate of Education to ensure rigorous training of all principals and teachers on the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to avoid such incidents in future.
Incident details
The two boys, aged 12 and 13 years, have filed separate complaints with the police alleging that they were sexually assaulted by five to six classmates. Police said the alleged incident took place in April during a summer camp organised by the school.
The 13-year-old boy, a student of class VIII, alleged that his classmates forcefully took him to a park and sexually assaulted him. They also threatened him not to disclose it to anyone, officials said.
A few days ago, when the boys started troubling him, he informed his teachers about the incident who asked him not to tell anyone about this, they said, adding the victim informed his parents who later made a PCR call and a case was registered on Sunday, August 27.
