No security, Bangalore schools dangerous for students?

Bangalore, Jan 22: It seems that children are not safe in Bangalore schools. Once again another principal of a premier school has been arrested over child abuse allegation. Paul Mikken, a UK citizen and the principal of Trio International School was arrested over molestation case.

The principal's arrest shocked many especially the fellow colleagues and students of Mikken who was arrested following a complaint by the parents of a student whose identification has not been revealed yet.

"Police complain have been registered against the principal. He was arrested and sent to judicial custody," said Joint Commissioner, Bangalore East, B Dayananda.

However, the school also criticised such act and also claimed, "The management will not tolerate any such issues even if it is a mere allegation and would not spare any effort to get to the bottom of the truth and to ensure to uphold the high standards maintained by the institution."

Here it can be mentioned that the school earlier had asked its students to add all its teachers as friends in their Facebook account. Explaining the reason behind such act, the arrested principal earlier had said, "We don't want to intentionally interfere with their lives but the point is they are children and they tend to make mistakes and while we won't be monitoring what they're saying 24/7, we do want to keep track of what they are doing online."

Here it also can be recalled that Class 10 girls of the school affiliated to the Ramakrishna Mission were reportedly harassed for years by their Hindi teacher, identified as VS Rathod.

Citing the news, parents are really worried about the children's safety in schools. However, in a written notice issued by the Trio International School says, "We are deeply shocked and saddened to state an unfortunate issue wherein on Friday, 20th January 2012, a parent approached the school administration with a complaint that the headmaster, Dr Paul Meekins, was allegedly having inappropriate chatting session with the pupil. Immediately the management convened an emergency meeting and decided to suspend him from his current responsibilities forthwith pending investigation not withstanding his past laurels. Thereafter, a police investigation was initiated and we have extended full cooperation to the police authorities."

OneIndia News