School teacher held for alleged sexual harassment

Chennai: City police has arrested a school teacher on charges of sexual harassment of his students, police said.

The police arrested G. Rajagopalan, who teaches accountancy to students at the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan School here, following social media posts by school students and alumni accusing him of indulging in sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour like appearing topless for an online class on Monday.

He was remanded to judicial custody till June 8.

The school management had suspended him on Monday.

The Padma Seshadri group runs a clutch of schools and has notched up a good reputation.

The school management has said it is taking suo moto notice of the allegations and will take the necessary steps to address the situation in a free, fair and transparent manner.

Assuring the parents of its students, the school said it has zero tolerance towards any behaviour that adversely affects the physical, emotional and psychological well being of the students.

The school management also said these allegations were not brought to its notice earlier.

Following the allegation against the teacher, the school alumni have written to the management to take action against the alleged offender and suspend him immediately pending a probe.

Two Lok Sabha members belonging to the DMK – Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi- have demanded a probe into the sexual harassment complaints against the concerned teacher.

This is the second instance of a sexual harassment complaint in a reputed educational institution here. The earlier one was at Loyola College.

Last year The Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women ordered Chennai’s Loyola College to pay Rs 64,30,000 to a former staffer towards damages for sexual harassment, mental agony and in back wages.

Curiously there was no political uproar against Loyola College then.

(IANS)