Parents of sexual assault victim point out lapses by Gurugram school

Published - February 23, 2019 01:38 am IST - GURUGRAM

A day after a housekeeping staff of a private school in Sector 70 here was arrested for alleged sexual assault of a three-year-old student, her parents accused the school administration of glaring lapses and demanded an investigation into the matter.

Speaking to The Hindu , the girl’s father said that just two days before the incident, he had written an email to her class teacher expressing concern over the male support staff having free access to areas thronged by schoolchildren.

“The class teacher had assured to look into the matter, but nothing happened,” said the father.

He also alleged that CCTVs were not installed outside the girls’ washroom and those in the corridor were of poor quality. He demanded that the woman entrusted with accompanying the children to the washroom be interrogated as the parents suspected her involvement in the recent incident. “The school principal and the class teacher should also be held responsible for the lapse. Such incidents will continue to happen till the time the school administration is held responsible,” said the father. The school authorities refused to comment on the matter.

Badshahpur SHO Mukesh Kumar said, “We will definitely look into whether the guidelines issued by the district administration for the safety and security of the students in 2017 were adhered to or not.” The accused was produced before the court on Friday and remanded in judicial custody.

The District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) under the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) has counselled the girl and her parents for almost an hour.

Gurugram CWC Chairperson Shankuntala Dhull said that the girl repeated before the DCPO whatever she had narrated to her parents. A two-member committee comprising District Elementary Education Officer and Tehsildar has been constituted by the Deputy Commissioner to conduct an investigation and present a report within a week.

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