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School questioned for punishing students celebrating Deepavali
A school’s initiative to celebrate on environment-friendly Deepavali had been misinterpreted which also ended up with the headmistress extending an apology to the Hindu outfit members here, after one of the parents along with a few Hindu outfit members had lodged a complaint against the school authorities with the police, after which, the child protection officials organised an enquiry on Monday.
By
migrator
migrator
Thiruchirapalli
It is said, on Friday, Sr Lilly Antony, the headmistress of Servite Matriculation School, located at Palakkarai, distributed certificates to seven students who celebrated Deepavali without bursting crackers in the school prayer hour. She had also asked the students who had burst crackers to express sorry to the nature for polluting it.
However, a Class 2 student, son of S Sethuraman, who is also close to a Hindu outfit, had narrated the incident to his father who, in turn, mistook it for punishment, and passed on the information to the Hindu outfit members that the school had punished their students for celebrating Deepavali. Sethuraman also alleged that the students were asked to kneel down and beaten for applying Henna.
Subsequently, on Saturday, a section of outfit members assembled in front of the school and demanded the arrest of the headmistress for acting against religious sentiment.
Later, the outfit members besieged Chief Educational Office and demanded action against the school.
Meanwhile, the headmistress gave an explanation letter to the CEO and the Inspector of Matriculation School and she had also explained it to the protesting members.
In the meantime, on Monday, the school administration issued a clarification that the students were encouraged to celebrate eco-friendly Deepavali citing the circular by the District Pollution Control Board and were given appreciation letter for the students who did not fire crackers.
Similarly, the clarification letter detailed that their students were asked to clip their nails regularly and the staff checked the nails of the children after the Deepavali holidays which was mistaken for inspecting henna, the letter stated.
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