Parents allege wards harassed in school

Vadodara/ Anand: Shree Swaminarayan Gurukul International School at Bakrol in Anand district witnessed a major ruckus on Tuesday after parents alleged that their wards were being harassed by school teachers and senior students.
A group of parents reached the school premises along with media persons on Tuesday complaining that the children were beaten with iron rods, forced to eat insect-infested food and abused by senior students. The parents had rushed to the school after reports that some students had attempted suicide there.
“I had enrolled three children, one in class 4, another in class 7 and the third in class 9. I was promised that they would be served good quality food and receive good treatment. Forget about the quality of food, one of my kids was so badly beaten that he started vomiting blood,” alleged Umesh Sharma, an Indore resident who arrived at the school premises to take back his children.
“Before enrolling my children, I had already informed the school authorities that my kid has undergone open-heart surgery but instead of taking extra care, he too was beaten up and that too by ‘guruji’,” he said, adding that 25-30 students were forced to stay in one room.
Bharti Patel, mother of Daksh Patel, said that she was completely unaware of what her child was going through. “It was only today that I came to know that my kid could not tell me whatever he was facing because monitors were standing in front of him when he was talking to me on phone,” she said, adding that her child was forced to eat biscuits whose use by date had expired.
Sadhu Atmaswaroopdasji from the school management, however, refuted the allegations. He told media persons that a couple of parents had approached the school to take back their wards as they were homesick.
“We even granted them permission to collect their wards. But they kept on creating controversies. At our institute, there is a strict rule that no staff member or any student can beat up any child. We follow that rule strictly,” he said.
“Anyone can visit the campus anytime to check the quality of food that is served to the children,” he said.
“It seems there is some misunderstanding between a group of students who might have entered into a fight. We are open to any kind of complaints,” Atmaswaroopdasji said, refuting allegations of harassment.