Harassment by teachers

Cases of physical abuse, sexual harassment & the display of bigotry on campuses must be taken seriously by govt bodies

Teachers serve as role models and protectors that parents entrust their children with for approximately six to eight hours every day. When a teacher takes advantage of a student, that trust is broken and rage ensues. Such is the situation at Future Foundation School in Scheme 33 in Karachi, where a high school teacher is accused of sexual misconduct with students. The teacher allegedly recorded inappropriate videos of female students after blackmailing them. Instead of carrying out inquiries and addressing the concerns of the protesting students and parents regarding an alleged paedophile freely operating at her school and under her watch, the principal has denied all allegations and expelled the student victims. Teacher and principal behaviour towards students in this country should be a cause for major concern, especially in a conservative society where children are taught to keep silent when faced with abuse and always uphold the ‘family honour’.

A couple of weeks earlier, a headmistress at a Faisalabad government school threatened and locked up a female student for hours for using the school bathroom. The headmistress’s prejudice gave way to her flawed belief that the girl, because she was of Christian background, should be barred from using the school bathroom, which was presumptuously only for use by the school’s Muslim majority. In both, the Karachi and Faisalabad schools, as well as countless other schools across the country where incidents of abuse at the hands of teachers have been reported, the school administrations are responsible for ensuring that teachers do not abuse their authority and students remain safe. Cases of physical abuse, sexual harassment and the display of bigotry and prejudice on campuses must be taken seriously by government bodies. Corporal punishment and child sex abuse can have lifetime impacts on the psyche of young minds. Education departments and the police at the provincial and federal levels have an imperative task that must be dealt with on an emergency basis. Such cases warrant the launch of criminal investigations, trials and appropriate punishments, along with a permanent end to the teaching careers, in fact any career that requires interaction with children, of the offenders.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2015.

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