HYDERABAD: Rajini Kumar, the driver accused of raping a four-and-a-half-year girl in the DAV school, used to threaten the students that they would be locked up in the darkroom if they were too mischievous. No one could have imagined the dread the kids felt following this threat, since the darkroom was the same room where he allegedly raped the LKG student.
Not just parents, even the school staff failed to notice anything was amiss since the driver flitted in and out of the principal’s room, indicating the level of trust he enjoyed. No one noticed anything amiss even if some kid was not seen for some time, according to some parents.
In hindsight, some actions and gestures were all indicators that something horrific was happening to the children, said the parents who had gathered in front of the school on Wednesday. While expressing their support to the parents of the tiny tot, they said that they were not aware of the gravity of the situation when they got messages on their phones that the school would be closed for Diwali holidays. “We assumed that it was for Diwali holidays when we got the message from the school management, we later learnt the facts and are now terrified what the kids must have gone through,” some parents said.
One of the parents whose daughter studies in the same class as the victim, said that this incident was not just shocking, it was traumatic. “We are so terrified, that we asked my child if she knew the driver or if anyone misbehaved with her,” the parent said. To her horror, her child managed to recognise the driver and said that he locked her in the room and hit her once, the parent told Express.
Another parent, Archana Reddy whose daughter is in UKG, said that the school lacks security. She said that there were two instances when she sent her friend to pick up her kids and the teacher sent them with her friend without taking any confirmation.
“Even the principal is so arrogant. One day, my child fell down and bruised her cheek. When I questioned the principal the next day, she replied “Am I the only one to look after your kid”?The father of a Class-1 student questioned the presence of the driver in the school premises. “I mistook him to be the faculty as all the students addressed him as ‘Sir’. He was also arrogant when I asked him about facilities in the classroom,” the parent said.