School teacher cuts hair of eight girls to discipline them, placed under suspension

Vijayawada: A school teacher cut the hair of eight girls of Class IX as a mark of punishment for their alleged indiscipline at Sarada Municipal High School in Kakinada on Wednesday.
According to district education authorities, a female school teacher identified as V. Mangatayaru found fault with the girls for not attending school regularly and attending classes without properly combing their hair.
As the students were not heeding to her advice to attend classes regularly and coming to class not combing their hair properly, she took a pair of scissors and cut the tail end of the long hair of eight female students despite their resistance.
Learning about the development, the girls’ parents rushed to the school and lodged a complaint with the headmaster expressing their protest for the unusual punishment meted out to their daughters, and demanding severe action against the teacher.
Accordingly, the authorities ordered an inquiry headed by deputy DEO and found that the teacher cut the hair of eight girls as they were attending classes without combing their hair properly despite her repeated appeals. The issue was taken to the notice of the district collector.
School education regional joint director and district education officer-in-charge G. Nagamani said, “A female school teacher cut the hair of eight girl students from Class IX as they were attending classes without properly combining their hair. We have ordered an inquiry and found the teacher guilty. We are going to suspend her based on a preliminary inquiry report.”
No complaint has been lodged with the police on the development when the last reports came in.
Meanwhile, a parent of the victim’s student D. Srinivas said, “If the students commit mistakes, they should be admonished and if they still fail to be disciplined, their parents should be informed. The girls felt insulted as the teacher cut their hair in a class of 60 students. The victim girls do remember such a harsh punishment for the rest of life and it is a very unfair practice.”
An uncle of a victim’s girl student Appala Raju said, “Though some teachers apologized for the mistake of one of their colleagues but the girls felt slighted as it was done in front of all the students. It is not the way to deal with indiscipline and the school head should be informed and also the parents should be called to explain.”