Bus attendant arrested for allegedly molesting eight children on school picnic

Bus attendant arrested for molesting 6 girls, 2 boys on school trip. Parents demand action against negligent teachers. School terminates services of staff.

The Kapurbawadi police on Wednesday arrested a 27-year-old bus attendant of a third-party tour company for allegedly molesting six girls and two boys, Class II students of a reputed school in Thane, based on a complaint lodged by parents.

Thane, India - February ,21, 2024: The parents of the school in Thane have alleged that the students were molested while they were taken on a picnic yesterday, so the parents have gathered at the school to demand an answer from the school. ,in Thane, in Mumbai, India, on, Wednesday, February,21, 2024. ( Praful Gangurde / HT Photo )

The alleged incident took place on Tuesday evening in the school bus when the children were returning from an excursion to Kidzania, an indoor theme park in Ghatkopar. According to the complaint, the 27-year-old man from Adventure Education Tours made the children sit on his lap and touched their private parts while distributing the snack boxes. The children, who are taught how to identify good touch and bad touch, reported the abuse to their parents as soon as they alighted from the bus at 6 pm.

The upset parents went to the school authorities immediately and were assured that appropriate action would be taken. When the school did nothing till 10 pm, and parents realised that the abuse had happened with eight children, they went to the police station and lodged a complaint in the early hours of Wednesday.

The police have arrested the accused, but the parents demanded that the names of the three teachers who were present in the bus also be added to the FIR for their negligence. The parents also claimed that the school did not inform them about the involvement of a third-party tour company.

“I noticed that my daughter was not happy when she returned from the school trip,” said a parent. “I was shocked when she said the “uncle” in the bus had touched her private part. She also saw this happening with two other girls. When asked what the teachers were doing, she said the teachers were seated in the front and were not keeping an eye on what was happening.”

Another parent reported that when her daughter went to the bus attendant asking for water, the man asked her to kiss him if she wanted her water bottle refilled. “She was scared and unwilling but because she was thirsty, she had to kiss him,” she said. Other parents recounted that when their children wanted to use the washrooms, the man asked them to utter a cuss word before allowing them to do so.

The parents gathered at the school again on Wednesday morning to question the school authorities about their negligence. “The school took written consent for the trip from parents but there was not a single line about the involvement of a third-party adventure group,” said a parent. “We didn’t know there would be a male person on the bus. When we contacted the school authorities, they didn’t respond at first and later they said that none of their teachers were at fault. They claimed it was not the school’s responsibility and all schools arranged trips in a similar manner. The schoolteachers, who were in the bus, denied any such incident happened, claiming that they had an eye on everyone.”

However, when the parents threatened to hold a protest at the school the next day, the school issued a statement on Wednesday evening, condemning the incident. The statement said it had terminated the services of three teachers who supervised the school trip and promised that it would not engage the third-party company for such trips in future.

Sharmila Madiwale, principal of the school, said in the statement that the incident was “disheartening and bad”. “The police officers have taken action in the matter,” she said. “We have been arranging trips from the Adventure Tours and Travels company for the last few years and we have never faced any such problem. We treat every child with love and compassion and none of our teachers would have allowed such an incident to happen. We are cooperating with the police for all the details they want from us.”