I am sorry for caning: La Martiniere principal

KOLKATA - Breaking his month-long silence, Sunirmal Chakravarthi, the principal of Kolkata’s premier school La Martiniere for Boys, Tuesday apologised for having caned a student but claimed that it had no connection with the boy committing suicide.

After having drawn flak from the West Bengal government, child rights groups, political parties and NGOs, Chakravarthi promised that students would not be caned in his school any more.

“I am sorry for caning Rouvanjit Rowla. And such caning of students won’t be repeated in the school. It was wrong on my part to have caned him as it is against the rules of the school.

“But at the same time I also think that suicide of Rouvanjit has no connection with my caning,” Chakravarthi said in an interview to a private Bengali news channel.

Rouvanjit, committed suicide by hanging himself Feb 12. It was alleged that the Class 8 student took this drastic step after months of humiliation, allegedly at the hands of his teachers.

A police complaint has been filed by the boy’s father against the principal and four teachers alleging that his son was driven to take his life following repeated humiliation and torture.

“Rouvanjit and two other students were caned Feb 8 for their mischief. Rouvanjit was absent for the next few days. Then on Feb 12 he came to school and after he was again caught committing mischievous activities he was called to my office and I told him that a guardian call will be made,” claimed Chakravarthi.

“Now the question is that on Feb 12 he was neither beaten nor scolded. He was only told that a guardian call will be made. Then how come it is said that Rouvanjit committed suicide because I caned him,” added Chakravarthi.

The state government has announced that it would form an authority where students and their parents can express their grievances about schools and teachers.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has also conducted a probe and expressed dissatisfaction over the teaching environment in the school.

“My heart goes out to his family. But I just want to say that Rouvanjit didn’t commit suicide because of the caning. I had very good relations with Rouvanjit,” said the principal.

Besides the controversy about the caning and the suicide, the leading city school has also been under scrutiny after the arrest of a teacher for allegedly demanding a laptop from a student to promote him to a higher class and then failing the child as his parents refused to meet his demand.