Sister Monica breaks down?

IF SEPTEMBER 6 morning assembly at Loreto Convent (LC) was controversial, the one held on Tuesday was emotional. The students assembled as usual for their routine morning-assembly session. The normally stoic college principal Sister Monica arrived soon after and made an emotionally charged statement that made many eyes moist.

IF SEPTEMBER 6 morning assembly at Loreto Convent (LC) was controversial, the one held on Tuesday was emotional. The students assembled as usual for their routine morning-assembly session. The normally stoic college principal Sister Monica arrived soon after and made an emotionally charged statement that made many eyes moist. “Let us pray to God to bless those who have destroyed our school (reputation),” Sister Monica said. And then she broke down.

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Teachers and some students tried to pacify her. But, she took some time to regain composure. She reportedly asked the students to freely tell whatever they felt about the September 6 assembly session to the fact-finding committee constituted by the District Magistrate Ramendra Tripathi on the orders of the State Government.

“The atmosphere was so emotionally charged that we too fought hard to control our tears. The Sister was pained by the events that had unfolded in the last few days,” a student, requesting anonymity told HT Live. Soon after, the fact-finding team constituted by the district magistrate (DM) on the orders of the State Government, visited the campus. The members, including additional district magistrate (ADM, city) east, Janardan Barnawal, additional city magistrate (ACM-I), RP Singh, Superintendent of police (East), AS Rai and District Inspector of Schools (DIOS) Vikas Srivastava expressed a desire to meet the students individually.

The college authorities complied with the request. “We met several students on a one to one level and asked them to come out with complete details of the happenings in LC’s September 6 assembly. However, most of the students either said that nothing untoward happened or started beating around the bush,” a committee member said. The team stayed on the campus for a little over two hours, gathering information from students. The members also handed over a questionnaire to the principal seeking information about the exact nature of the spiritual session.

“Since we wanted everything in writing hence we thought it best to prepare a detailed questionnaire,” a committee member said. He said that a couple of students, requesting anonymity, did say in a guarded language, that they were not very comfortable with the September 6 session. DM Ramendra Tripathi on being contacted said that he would be able to tell the “complete picture” only after gathering complete information from the committee members.