Predatory teacher

 The shenigans of a teacher of Model High School of Katlicherra town in Hailakandi district has shown the risk girls students run of being sexually exploited in some schools. The obscene pictures this teacher took of himself with a minor student and then posted online, have caused widespread revulsion across the State. Shockingly, these pictures were clicked in the classroom itself, with the blackboard clearly visible in the background and the minor clad in school uniform. Despite the teacher known to be a serial offender and the girl’s parents lodging an FIR with the local police station, the school magement has remained unconcerned while the police merely called him for a routine interrogation and then let him go. It is only after the sickening pictures were aired by a local TV channel that the ‘Universal Team for Social Action and Help (UTSAH)’, an NGO working for child rights, lodged a complaint with the Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ASCPCR). It has called for punishing the teacher under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, (POCSO). The disturbing pictures are meanwhile freely circulating on social media, shaming the victim permanently while the perpetrator goes about freely. Should school magements leave it to the enraged public to dispense street justice, and not do some careful background checks and monitoring of their own to keep tabs on rogue teachers? And because of callousness of the police, victimised students and families have nowhere to turn.