Want to be a model? Complaints on strangers approaching students near Kolkata schools

KOLKATA: Kolkata Police have started a probe into a complaint by a parent of children studying in a prominent south Kolkata girls' school alleging that some unidentified women had approached her daughters with modelling offers on Thursday.
Police are checking CCTV footage and have spoken to school authorities, students and staff but have not yet found corroborative evidence to the incident. The cops will speak to the parent soon. They will even check if the "woman" was a parent of any student at the school. "The inquiry is underway. It is too early to comment," said an officer.

According to the complaint made by a woman whose daughters study at Modern High School for Girls, a woman had asked the girls - one 16-year-old and the other barely 8 - if they were interested in modelling. According to the parent, the girls were on their way back from school when they encountered the woman.
After learning about the incident, the mother emailed the complaint to the school principal and requested her to take necessary steps. She further mentioned in the mail that this was not the only instance and that she had learnt from other parents that two other children had been approached in the same manner.
What has triggered alarm among parents is that the woman or women involved had not revealed their identity and had attempted to contact the children in the absence of guardians. "They are aware of the dispersal timings of children of different classes and are around during the each of the dispersals. They are interacting with not only the senior girls but also with kids of Class III. The other parents and I feel extremely concerned and disturbed about unknown women approaching our children with such offers," the complainant wrote.
Modern High School director Devi Kar said the school authorities had informed Lalbazar as well as the local police station. "Police will carry out its investigation. We have also alerted our security guards," she said.
While police are probing the matter, they are also looking into similar complaint going viral about such incidents in front of other schools as well. Cops are wary that mischief-mongers could use it to create panic among parents. As posts went viral on similar offers being made to students of South City International School principal John Bagul got in touch with police at Lalbazar and instructed teachers and security staff to be cautious.
Bagul though said he had not received any direct complaint. "I don't trust viral messages and unless and until they are proven. We don't want to be misled. We have taken precautions to ensure students are safe," he said.