DHARMAPURI: Harur Sub-Collector M Prathap on Thursday sealed a private matriculation school for violating the lockdown norms by conducting special classes for Class X students. Of the 200 students who attended the class ahead of the board examination to be conducted from June 15, 60 have come from Tiruvannamalai, which has 116 active COVID-19 cases as on Wednesday, without securing passes from the district administration. Sources said the private school's administration also failed to follow social distancing norms while conducting these classes.
Speaking to TNIE, the sub-collector said that the school authorities have violated four orders -- closure of educational institutions during the lockdown, maintaining social distancing, use of hand sanitisers and masks and no inter-district commute without obtaining the district administration's permission -- and forced the students to stay in their hostels, putting all their lives at risk.
"To avoid being caught by the police, the school administration has instructed all parents to bring their children to their institution only on two-wheelers. The students were also asked not to wear school uniforms. The 60 students from Tiruvannamalai were forced to stay in the hostel for the past two days," he added.
Meanwhile, the sub-collector has also launched an inquiry to find how parents of these 60 students managed to cross the district border, which has been completely secured. "There are high chances for these parents to have lied to the police officials to cross the border. They could have also taken shortcuts seldom used for transportation to bypass the checkpoints. In the school, over four buildings were sealed, and one building earmarked to carry out paper correction works for the Class XII exam was exempted. Besides, all 200 children were handed over to their parents after issuing a strict warning," Prathap said.