Teachers unsparing use of rod injures boys eye

CHENNAI:  In an incident that brings to fore the conti­nued use of corporal punishment in schools, a 13-year-old student in Thuraipakkam was injured in the eye when his teacher can­ed him in class on Thursday.Despite a complaint lodged at the Neelangarai police station at the insistence of docto­rs treating him, the cops we­re yet to take action, his parents said. “The police are asking me to withdraw the complaint,” the boy’s mother M Mahalakshmi told Express.The boy’s father Mohan is a mason and the family resi­des on Jhansi Street in Vettu­vankeni on East Coast Road. M Deepak studies in class IX at a private school nearby.It was around 3 pm, when the incident took place duri­ng computer science class. Deepak was chatting with his friends, as the teacher was not taking class, police sour­ces said. On noticing a backbencher in tears, Deepak went to him to enquire. Whi­le returning, he stepped over another student sitting on the bench, Mahalakshmi told Express. The computer tea­cher, who noticed this, im­mediat­ely summoned him and his friend to her table.Asking the friend to kneel on the floor, the teacher hit Deepak on his thi­gh with a sc­ale, which broke on impa­ct, Mahalakshmi sa­id. “She then asked my son to stretch his hand and as she was brin­ging down the brok­en scale, he withdrew his pa­lm. The scale slipped and hit him on his right eye,” she said.She said her son fell unco­nscious and water was sprinkled on his face to revive him. Other students noticed blood oozing out of his eye and the teachers took him to a nearby clinic.