Parents of students studying at a Noida-based school staged a huge outside the institution on Saturday after a three-year-old girl student was sexually assaulted allegedly by a school staffer on the premises.
A parent-teacher meeting scheduled for Saturday was cancelled as the school was not willing to answer questions about the incident and the safety of their children, a parent told The Times of India.
Another parent questioned the school management for the lack of transparency and neglect of the children's safety.
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The mother of the child has blamed the school management for lapses in the case as it has allegedly ignored the student's complaints that led to the predator targeting the girl twice.
The girl's parents have also written an open letter to the media, asking for help in demanding justice for their daughter.
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On October 4, the child was taken to a locked medical room in the school and sexually assaulted by a housekeeping staffer, the mother told The Times of India.
{{/usCountry}}On October 4, the child was taken to a locked medical room in the school and sexually assaulted by a housekeeping staffer, the mother told The Times of India.
{{/usCountry}}When a woman staffer entered the room after hearing the child scream, the man then leapt out a window and escaped.
The mother claimed the child was eventually escorted back to her class by a teacher.
The mother added that her daughter refused to go to school on October 7 and complained of pain in her private parts. “We took her to a paediatrician and the doctor wrote some tests to check for infection. The next day, the doctor told us that there was no infection, but the child had been sexually assaulted,” ToI quoted the mother as saying.
After counselling, the child revealed that the ‘khana bhaiya’ as he was known had poked her private parts with a stick and that this was the second time this had happened, the first time being on the school playground.
When she had informed a teacher, she had been told “ghar par mat batana” (don't talk about this at home). The mother confronted the teacher who dismissed the incident once again, after which the parent went to the police and file an FIR on October 9.
“I called up the class teacher on October 8 and asked her about the two incidents. To my surprise, the teacher tried to brush away the incident and said that my daughter may have watched an inappropriate video online and may be telling the events as her own. I was taken aback, and asked the teacher that watching a video would not give my daughter pain, redness, and rashes in her private parts,” the mother said.
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The girl was questioned by the Child Welfare Committee and managed to identify the 30-year-old predator from Nithari village, who was subsequently arrested and charged under BNS section 65(2) (rape of a woman under 12 years) and relevant sections of the POCSO act, reported The Times of India.
The CWC also served notice to the school and its principal who claimed they were not aware of this incident and that the parents hadn't addressed this with them.
During their investigation, police confirmed that the girl’s class teacher and the school’s security supervisor were aware of the assault but failed to report it to authorities. They were arrested on Thursday and charged with concealment of a crime, reported India Today.