Schoolgirls consume poison over ‘harassment’ by HM

November 08, 2013 09:42 am | Updated July 05, 2016 10:31 am IST - Madurai:

Distraught over treatment meted out to them by the headmistress, seven girl students of a government school in Poigaikaraipatti near here ate bananas laced with toxins on Thursday.

The students, who were hospitalised, are out of danger. The Class VII students of of were taken to the Government Rajaji Hospital here after classmates found them lying unconscious in the classroom.

A teacher is understood to have summoned the girls’ parents two days earlier to complain that their wards were playing truant. However, the parents claimed that the children were harassed by their teachers for taking part in folk dances in the village.

"The headmistress did not like the children taking part in events connected with the village festivals and asked them to focus on their studies instead," alleged Thirukumaran, father of one of the victims. "She had been harassing our children for some time," he added. The parents had lodged a complaint with the Appantirupathi police against the headmistress.

But Chief Educational Officer C. Amuthavalli said the students were irregular to school and that their parents were informed.

The headmistress could not be reached.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.