Corporal punishment: Getting the silent treatment

Headmaster tortures 7th grader for getting tongue-tied, breaks nose and ribs.

UCH SHARIF:

A school headmaster tortured a seventh grader on Wednesday.

According to police officials, Moza Kachi Shakrani Government Boy’s High School headmaster Khalid Nawaz beat up seventh grader Rashid with a stick for nearly fifteen minutes as the entire class looked on. Nawaz said that he had beaten Rashid because the boy got tongue tied while answering a problem.

One of Rashid’s class mates informed the principal and the staff rushed in to find the boy on the floor suffering a panic attack. Rashid was taken to the DHQ hospital, where doctors said that he his nose had been broken and two of his ribs had been dislocated. “He isn’t saying anything. We think he is in shock but hasn’t spoken a word since the incident.

When they brought him in his nose and mouth were bleeding profusely and we are checking for any internal injuries,” said DHQ Dr Ishaq Mir, adding “three of the boy’s teeth were broken as well. This teacher should be put behind bars,” he said.

Parents in Moza Kachi have protested against the incident and Rashid’s father Qayyum has filed a case against school teacher Khalid Nawaz for assaulting his son. Uch Sharif police have registered a case against Nawaz and are searching for his whereabouts after he fled the scene.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2011.