Damaged classrooms greeted the small number of students who returned to the Hosa Guddadahalli school, which was recently in the eye of a storm, on Monday.
Some of the staff came and cleaned the school, but bent fans, burnt benches and broken window panes were still seen, bearing testimony to the violence on January 7 after a seven-year-old girl was sexually assaulted allegedly by the physical education teacher. The accused, Ramakrishna, is now in judicial custody. Furniture and property were destroyed and even the attendance registers were burnt during the rioting.
Only 21 per cent (137 out of 641) of the students attended school on Monday. The victim did not attend classes.
Many students said their parents sent them to school after giving them a long list of instructions. Jhansi Rani, a class six student, said: “My parents asked me to return if there was any chaos. I cannot forget what happened in our school on January 7. It still scares me.”
There was heavy police presence at the school. Anand, head of the aided primary school section, said the school had installed 24 cameras and would apply for police verification of their staff.
