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6-year-old student stripped, sent home; teacher arrested, say Mizoram Police
The child’s mother said that her daughter, who was studying in class-I, had been physically assaulted by a boy in the school on August 22.
Police has arrested a school teacher in Mizoram’s Thangpui village for allegedly stripping a six-year-old girl off her school uniform and sending her home, officials said on Sunday.
Police said the incident took place at a government-run primary school at Thangpui village in Lunglei district on August 25, and the accused, identified as Lalbiakengi, was arrested on Saturday following a complaint by a child protection unit.
“The teacher was arrested on Saturday after a complaint filed by a child protection unit on the same day. She has been booked under various sections of the Juvenile Justice Act and is currently in police custody,” Lunglei superintendent of police (SP) Rex Zarzoliana Vanchhang said.
The state school education department has served a show cause notice to the teacher, while the state’s apex student body Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) demanded her termination.
The child’s mother said that her daughter, who was studying in class-I, had been physically assaulted by a boy in the school on August 22.
“My daughter was beaten black and blue by her classmate after which she vomited blood and felt abdominal pain. However, as she was so eager to go back to school, wearing the school uniform for the first time this year, she went back the next day, only to be beaten by the same boy again,” she said.
“Subsequently, teacher Lalbiakengi called me over the phone and rebuked me citing that I breached the school rules for going to the school and scolding the boy,” the mother said.
The teacher even complained in a WhatsApp group, she added.
“I was so angry and frustrated that I went to the school on August 25 to take my daughter along with her brother. At this juncture, the teacher intervened and told me if I were to take home my child, I should leave her uniform behind as another student needed one. She then stripped my daughter in front of her classmates and let her go with only her underwear,” the mother said.
School education minister Lalchhandama Ralte said a show cause notice was served to the teacher a day after the incident, and will appear before the district education officer on Monday.
Meanwhile, citing human rights violations, the MZP demanded that the teacher be sacked as “she is not qualified to continue”.
MZP president Lalnunmawia Pautu said that the student body would meet the education minister and state education director H. Lalthlangliana to submit representation demanding the termination.
