COIMBATORE: The very word ‘predator’ sounds scary. But nothing could be more appropriate to describe the situation faced by some helpless tribal girl students who manage to overcome predators in the wild, only to be victims of a predator at school in the form of a male school teacher, who sexually abused them at school.
Overcoming hurdles like crossing lakes and ponds in boats, and evading threat of attack by wild animals like elephants, tigers and panthers, tribal girls from various settlements near Karamadai on the outskirts of the city, reach the nearest Government High School at Barali Power House, to pursue their education. But, the human predator at school is someone whom the students couldn’t escape. They had only one option to safeguard themselves, which is drop out of school. The incident came to light only when a senior staff associated with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) visited the school for an inspection, around two months back. During inspection, they found that more number of girls from various settlements had dropped out.
“To ascertain the reason, we met the parents and the students. They revealed that a science teacher from the school, R Ravichandran, who is at the verge of retirement, misbehaved with these girls. We had filed a report in this regard, and action is yet to be initiated by top officials in the school education department,” a SSA staff told Express.
Now, there are about 47 students studying between Class-VI to Class-X in the school, located in the hills of the Western Ghats. Students from villages around Pillur Dam, Varakkad, Jabaikadu, Nellithurai and nearby tribal settlements, are studying here.
“As most of these settlements are in the hills and inside reserve forests, students have to cross dangerous situations, including crossing a river in Vellikadu by sailing in a coracle on their own, and carefully cross the jungles, keeping themselves safe from elephants, tigers and panthers,” a teacher said. Both teachers and students orally lodged a complaint to the Coimbatore District Educational Officer (DEO) K Thenmozhi, and on February 2, the teachers had filed a written complaint on the issue.
When contacted, Coimbatore DEO K Thenmozhi, said, “We received a complaint in this regard and an inquiry was initiated and after completion of inquiry, action will be taken.”