Goregaon student protests expulsion

Instead of attending class on Friday, Adishree Gopalkrishnan (13) staged a dharna outside her school, Vibgyor High in Goregaon (West).

Instead of attending class on Friday, Adishree Gopalkrishnan (13) staged a dharna outside her school, Vibgyor High in Goregaon (West).

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The Class 9 student was expelled from school on Wednesday, a day before the new academic session began. The reason cited for her expulsion by the school was that Adishree’s mother, Avisha Kulkarni, had filed a “false and unwarranted” police complaint against the school management in July 2009 alleging that she feared that the school would physically harm her and her daughter.

Last year, Adishree’s books got lost in school and her mother wrote to Principal Shim Mathew, stating that she would hold the principal responsible if the books were lost again.

“These two letters were written almost an year ago. We hoped that the chapter had been closed,” said Kulkarni (45), one of the three parent members in the state-appointed Bansal committee, which looked at fixing norms to regulate fees for private schools in the state.

Rustom Kerawalla, the school’s trustee, said: “If the parents feel that the management is going to cause them harm, then this no-admission notice is in the interest of the management, the parents and the child.”

The management’s notice also mentioned that Kulkarni had led morchas against the principal and this disturbed the school’s working. He added that if Kulkarni accepted that the complaints were bogus they would reconsider the expulsion.

In April, Adishree was promoted to Class 9 and paid Rs 33,075 on May 14, as the first instalment of the annual fees. “I will not go to any other school as there are no valid reasons to not give me admission,” she said.