Ulsoor school horror: Beating, shaming children scars them forever

By Fleme Varkey | First Published Feb 13, 2017, 10:42 AM IST

‘A teacher doesn't have any other way to instill discipline other than beating’, says school Principal
The teacher would threaten to take the kids to a dark room where a dog was kept and it would attack their private parts
The taunting and chiding from classmates further heightens the anxiety of a child and they develop confidence issues and end up becoming socially awkward

When parents send their children to school, they feel assured that their child will be safe and protected. Children just starting school are at an impressionable age, where anything could affect their psyche or development. Especially when it comes to abuse of any sort – mental, physical or even emotional. The little minds are not capable of assessing the magnitude of it.

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A parent of a Nursery student in East Wood High School, Ulsoor was in for a shock when she discovered why her little girl did not want to go school. Small kids are bound to make excuses or play tantrums when it comes to going to school. Shailaja (name changed), thought so too, when her little girl started crying every morning when it was time for school.

Later, she asked her daughter the reason of her daily crying and the child told her that her class teacher used to beat her regularly. Shailaja requested her daughter’s class teacher not to beat her. But after giving her three more chances to stop beating, Shailaja realised that the treatment continued, with her daughter as well as other children.

Beating children in school, comes under Corporal Punishment, something which is prohibited according to the Section 17 of Right to Education Act .

Finally, a concerned Shailaja put the matter before the Principal. Their conversation was enough to make the five-year-old’s mother rethink her decision to have her daughter in the school. She says, in a Facebook post narrating their ordeal, “I decided to complain to the Principal and her initial statement was ‘No we don't beat any kids here as beating is banned in school’ but her last sentence was ‘A teacher doesn't have any other way to instill discipline other than beating’!

With no help from the school authorities also, Shailaja put forward a petition on Change.org requesting that action be taken against the involved and also that children be given a ‘Happy Childhood’. The Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has filed a suo motu case and issued summons to the school as well as ordered an inquiry. The teacher has dismissed the alleged beating incident as lies on the part of the parent.

However, Shailaja had also highlighted the other methods used by the kindergarten teacher to discipline the children. Her post describes that apart from beating, the teacher then started pulling down the pants of kids forcefully and making the rest of the class chant "shame shame puppy shame". If that too did not work, she would threaten them saying that they will be taken to one dark room where a dog is kept and it would attack their private parts.

“A teacher doesn't have any other way to instill discipline other than beating”, that, my dear friends does not come under effective disciplining of children and it is for specific reasons that beating kids comes under corporal punishment. When a teacher scolds a child, we assume the purpose is to establish to the kid that what he/she is doing is wrong and that habit should not be repeated.

Beating, spanking, belting, shaming children with appearance or like removing clothes etc.. all come under physical punishment. Psychologists are of the opinion that beating a child or shaming them results in a vicious cycle, where the young mind develops this feeling that they are unworthy, unloved and are doing something drastically wrong to be reprimanded like this in the first place.

The taunting and chiding from classmates further heightens the anxiety of a child and they develop confidence issues and end up becoming socially awkward. This is the same in the case of parents disciplining their children. After teachers, it is parents who play the formulative roles in the child’s life. A child looks to the parent or teacher or reconfirmation of their performance, of their thinking etc...and when brutally chided by the same, the child is unable to understand what went wrong and becomes withdrawn. They further begin to assume that such punishment is acceptable for anyone who behaves in this manner and when they grow up practice such abusive behaviour with their friends, siblings or others. Children exposed to non-peaceful ways of conflict resolution often become perpetrators of gender violence in their adulthood. Exposing children to violence can make them potential perpetrators of such vices later in life.

By beating children or shaming them, you do give the message, the behaviour is not accepted, but most parents and teachers fail to explain why they were punished in such manner and what should the child be doing instead. For those who think that children are incapable of reasoning, they are mistaken. The young minds are like sponges who soak in everything that they see, hear or is being taught to them.

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