HM in soup for making student clean toilet

Coimbatore: The father of a Class V student of a government elementary school in Pudhupalayam near Narasimhanaickenpalayam in the district on Thursday lodged a police complaint against the headmistress for making his daughter clean the school toilets and making caste slurs against her. He was accompanied by members of the Students Federation of India (SFI) and Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front.
On its part, the school education department has warned the HM and sent her on leave, as higher officials were not available to take action.
In his complaint to the Perianaickenpalayam police, M Parthiban, 34, of Maniyakarampalayam near Idikarai, said they belonged to the Arundhathiyar (dalit) community. The complaint said earlier this week his 10-year-old daughter had refused to go to school and take food. “When inquired, she said headmistress Kumareswari had forced her to clean toilets for two weeks. When she refused to clean them on February 11, the headmistress hit her and made caste slurs against her,” it said.
He sought action against the headmistress under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. “Police have not yet formally registered a case. They said they would do it on Friday,” said Dhinesh Raja, SFI .
School education department officials, meanwhile, denied the allegation that the headmistress had made the student to clean the toilets. A school education department source, however, said the headmistress was known to be rude and used to scold students. “Earlier, she had created problems at the government elementary school in Goundampalayam, following which she was transferred to this school.”
Perianaickenpalayam block education officer Krishnamoorthy said the headmistress had asked the students to use water to keep the toilet clean and that might have been misunderstood by the students. “However, we learn that she has behaved rudely to the students.” tnn