School Students Forced To Strip, Stand Naked For Being Late

School students between the ages of 9 and 10 were forced to strip naked and stand outside the classroom as punishment for being late in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday. All students forced to strip were boys.

The incident came to light Thursday after the video of the incident, which took place at a private school in Chittoor district, went viral on Facebook and Twitter. This resulted in child right activists demanding strict action against school authorities. A police case was filed by a local activist. However, the school authorities are yet to be taken to custody as they are on the run.

“This heinous, corporal punishment is unacceptable. You cannot punish children in such a way for being late to school. Parents send their children to schools entrusting the authorities and keeping a lot of confidence in them. If they (schools) resort to such ugly acts, what will the parents do?” child rights activist Achyuth Rao told News18.

Times Now News reported that local divisional educational officer along with the school’s principal tried to silence the families of the students as well as activists who staged protest outside the school, post the incident.

The education department has decided to withdraw the school’s recognition for one year.

Dr. K Panduranga Swamy, Chittoor District Education Officer said, “The parents, children and the school staff have been investigated. A detailed report will be out by the end of the day. The punishment is unacceptable and violates child rights. We are going to withdraw the school’s recognition for the academic year 2019-2020.”

“It came to our notice that on Tuesday, the school teacher punished some of the students of classes III and IV by letting them stand outside in the sun with bare bodies because they were late and had not done their homework. We immediately pressed the MEO to lodge a complaint at the local police station and ordered a thorough probe in the matter. We won’t tolerate such inhumanity against children and hence we have withdrawn recognition of the school and will take severe action against the school management,” he added, local daily the Deccan Chronicle reported.

The Department of Education also released a statement reading, “As a result of the negligent behavior of the management, the boys were left with bare bodies. This is a serious lapse on the part of the management which cannot be excused and thus attracted the provisions of Rules in GO Ms No. 1, dated 01.01.1994 and Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, 1988. Whereas, the school management behaved with total negligence in maintaining the safety of students and violated the provisions of rules governing the recognition of the private educational institutes and AP Education Act, 1994. Keeping in view of instructions of the HRD minister, we have withdrawn the permission and recognition granted to the school.”