School where 4-year-old was raped reopens

Mumbai: Around a week after a Malad-based school’s peon was held for allegedly raping a four-year-old girl in the washroom between August 1 and 4, the school reopened on Monday amid continuing boycott of classes by a section of students whose parents have demanded better security measures and removal of male peons and helpers in the wake of the incident.

Meanwhile, the victim’s mother told The Asian Age that the school had been negligent both towards safety and wellbeing of students. She claimed that she had approached teachers about her daughter acting weird after the alleged incident but neither the teachers nor the management took her seriously. It was later that the victim confided in her mother about the crime. Apart from arresting the peon, the police is also verifying lapses, if any, on the part of the school management.

When contacted, the school’s principal said, “We are cooperating with the police and necessary action will be taken if anything wrong is found.”

Sources said that a week after parents of the ICSE school students protested outside campus, demanding installation of security cameras along with other security measures, some parents gave the situation a second thought and started resending their children to school so as not to have their children’s education suffer in the bargain. Other parents like one from upper Govind Nagar, who did not want to be named, said, “There is no way I will send my daughter to a school where she is not safe. Missing a few days of school is preferable over being among monsters that can harm her. If push comes to shove, I will take her lessons myself to make up for the lost time.”

One of the parents, Sangeeta Mishra, mother of a Class 5 student told this paper, “My kid has already lost five school days because of this incident which is not even remotely related to him. I cannot afford to keep him home for more days and I, along with a few more parents decided to start sending them to school, instead of waiting for the cops to do their job and close this matter.”