Birgunj students accuse teacher of sexual assault

by RITESH TRIPATHI

myrepublica

BIRGANJ, Oct 1: Girl students at Birganj based Maisthan Bidhaya Peeth have accused the school administration of not listening to their complaints of sexual harassment by a teacher during school.

The students say they were forced to make a joint complaint after Dinesh Chaurasiya, a class 9 teacher, began touching them inappropriately during classes.

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A group of 35 Students jointly complained to principal Binod Meheta about the harassment by Chaurasiya last month, but no action has been taken till now.

“We don´t need a teacher who flirts with girl students. He pinches, slaps us on the back grabbing our ties so please don´t send Chaurasiya to our class to teach,” read the complaint submitted to the principal.

The girl students said they are fed up with the misconduct of Chaurasiya. “When we come to school wearing miniskirts, he stares at our legs, embraces while checking the homework and caresses girls´ backs,” said Alisa Rai. “I really loath his stare and his habit of touching my body inappropriately”, said another girl Rina Chhetri. Student Nisha Sah, Rakhi Jayasawal and Priyanka Gupta have the same story to share. “The misconduct of the teacher especially with girl students is beyond description,” they said. Student Dinesh Tiwari said both boys and girls were suffering from the foul language and ill treatment of Chaurasiya.

According to Priya Rai, one of the signatories of the application, Chaurasiya had threatened her personally to rusticate her from the school after the student complained about his for his misconduct. Chaurasiya even forced the students to sign another application which states that the earlier charges against him were untrue.

“After that, we were prepared to go to the District Administration Office (DOA) but other teachers stopped us and those who did not obey got punished too”, another student Chandan Saha said.

“Head teacher said that bringing the issue to the public would ruin the school´s reputation and that he would seek the solution soon. So we submitted another application,” said Saha.

In their second complaints they have included the thereat they received from Chaurasiya. “I hope with your prompt and judicious decision, we will get rid of the teacher,” said the request letter written by the girls.

Principal Mehta said that it is the internal matter of the school. “I think it is our internal problem. We have to seek its solution from among us. So I stopped the students from going to the DAO last time”, Mehta said. “If the issue comes to public, it would harm the school,” he added.

Other teachers however, said the principle would not take action against Chaurasiya because of his political influence. “Chaurasiya has access to people in power and that is the reason he cannot take action against him,” said a teacher.

Chaurasiya, who is working committee member of Nepal Teacher´s Organization and district chairman of Nepal Sadvawana Party affiliated Teachers forum, denied the charge saying that the accusations were made with intent to defame him. “I am being framed as I am working on reformation in the school and raising voices against irregularities in the school,” said Chaurasiya. “I might have touched students in the course of teaching because out of my habit but it was not intentional,” he clarified.

This article was written by RITESH TRIPATHI   and originally published on myrepublica