Boy Punches Principal

[goodboy_mentor]

A 16-year-old schoolboy slapped twice by his principal for changing seats in the middle of a show retaliated with kicks and punches in front of the entire school for over 10 minutes until a teacher separated the two.

The incident, which occurred on Tuesday afternoon at the St Aloysius Orphanage and Day School, is the first known instance in the city of an alleged victim of corporal punishment hitting back in such a manner.

More than 900 children and their teachers stood stunned in the school auditorium as the Class IX student — Metro is withholding the boy’s name pending an inquiry — repeatedly punched and kicked 45-year-old Father George Anthony before tearing his shirt.

The only ones apparently oblivious to the ugly drama were the tiny tots on the stage, who continued their performance even as the boy rained blows on the principal.

“We were too shocked to react. Minutes earlier, everyone was enjoying the musical performance by our kindergarten kids and suddenly we were seeing a high school student hitting the principal. I had never seen anything like this in my 15-year career,” recounted a teacher.

The trigger for the boy’s assault was the humiliation of being slapped and dragged by his collar in front of his schoolmates for allegedly trying to “disrupt the concert” by getting off his seat in the middle of the performance.

“He was seated in a row from where he didn’t get a clear view of the stage. So he got up to shift to another seat, only to be spotted by the principal, who was keeping an eye on us. Then all hell broke loose,” said a classmate who was a couple of rows behind.

“Don’t move, sit down where you are,” Father George had warned the moment he saw the boy get up.

When the 16-year-old tried to argue that he wasn’t being able to enjoy the performance from where he was seated, the principal “lost his cool”, a witness said.

“Father George walked up to my classmate and slapped him hard twice. He then grabbed him by his shirt collar to haul him out of the hall, causing him to lose balance and hit his head against a wall,” he added.

With the boy’s response taking everyone in the audience by surprise, it wasn’t until more than 10 minutes later that one of the teachers — a nun — intervened. “As our teacher separated them, we didn’t know where to look. The incident was as embarrassing as it was shocking,” recalled a Class X boy.

The principal immediately left the hall and went into his office while the boy, who is the only child of his parents, was taken to the staff room. His parents were later summoned and asked not to send him to school until further orders.

“The principal had hit me hard for no fault of mine. I struck back in self-defence,” the Class IX student told Metro on Wednesday.

His mother claimed the school authorities refused to meet her when she visited the institution on Wednesday.

Father George was unavailable for comment.

Father Moloy D’Costa, an official of the Calcutta Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church and the inspector of schools under the Roman Catholic Churches in Calcutta, said “a preliminary investigation” had revealed that the boy had been disrupting rehearsals for the show for a few days.

He promised an impartial inquiry into the incident. “The annual function will continue till Thursday. The boy has been asked not to attend school to ensure that there is no disruption over what happened on Tuesday,” said Father D’Costa.

Psychologists said the incident highlighted behavioural problems on either side of the student-teacher divide. “A student is expected to obey the principal’s orders, irrespective of whether he or she likes it or not. In this case, the principal had probably asked him not to leave his seat in the middle of the show to maintain discipline. But today’s children have a tendency to oppose anything that doesn’t suit them,” said psychologist Mahua Ghosh.

She also blamed the principal for failing to show restraint and resorting to corporal punishment, which is banned.
Reference: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101216/j ... 307773.jsp

[essdee1972]

Someone should recommend the kid for a medal.......

[Rajat]

Someone should recommend the kid for a medal.......

I do not feel so. I am not defending the act of the Principle here but the boy's behavior should not be idolized.

Of course, this is just my view.

[snIPer]

Someone should recommend the kid for a medal.......

yes someone with a mental problem.

Such kinds of kids should be punished - lack of discipline is what is making them into thugs and hoodlums.
/S/

[essdee1972]

Apologies for not elaborating my views earlier.

Knowing fully well that most, if not all, of my generation will not support me, I would still humbly side with the poor kid. Most people who have forgotten their schooldays, or have been fortunate enough to be in a school system better than the Indian one, would probably want to crucify me, literally.
1. He was trying to change his seat, so that he could see better. I am sure we would all remember the arbitrary rules that said that taller kids sit at the back, and then are dubbed "dull" because they are back benchers. I also remember being made to kneel down for a full period because I was trying to move to front (it was later found out that I needed glasses).
2. This was a concert, for god's sake, not a lecture by a VIP. A concert is meant to be enjoyed, and no one can enjoy if sitting bolt upright at attention, "fingers on your lips, no talking, ssshhhhhhh!" All "matured" adults enjoy making comments during movies, concerts, so why do we start whacking a poor kid?
3. The blame game has already started - today's children have a tendency to, blah blah...., the preliminary investigations.....disrupted the rehearsals.... What is the child's side? That his mother was not allowed to meet the school authorities? Why? Why couldn't they have the guts to immediately expel the kid? Is he the son of a big-shot? "The principal should not have hit him because corporal punishment is illegal". So, five or ten years ago, when corporal punishment was the rule rather than the exception, the principal would have been given a "big hand"??? Wah, wah, 45 years old buddha beats up defenceless 16 year old kid???
4. Coming, finally to discipline, look where the highly disciplined Waffen SS ended up. Do we really want our kids to stand at attention all their lives, fingers on their lips, straight lines, white shirts and navy blue pants?
5. We all say that one should hit back (or never tolerate) injustice. Then we all stand by and applaud, while the all-powerful "education" system ruins a life, just for hitting back at injustice. What would have happened if the kid had meekly let the Principal bash him up? No news (unless the kid slung himself from a fan). Only when a man bites a dog, it is news.
6. Now the personal angle - yes I was told to "please get out of the class, you are talking too much", many times in my life, even during my engineering and MBA classes also. And I wish I had enough guts (or was "indisciplined" enough) like the kid above.

[ebenezer]

First of all, corporal punishment shouldn't have been banned at all as kids, especially, the present generation, are becoming increasingly unruly. Cinema, media and society in general contribute to this. Parents, especially those employed, don't have time to keep tabs on their children. In such a scenario, only the school can inculcate discipline and that too, by sparing the rod. Kids just don't listen to 'kind advices'. But at the same time I don't support severe thrashing by teachers.

Ebenezer

[coolprasanth]

First of all, corporal punishment shouldn't have been banned at all as kids, especially, the present generation, are becoming increasingly unruly. Cinema, media and society in general contribute to this. Parents, especially those employed, don't have time to keep tabs on their children. In such a scenario, only the school can inculcate discipline and that too, by sparing the rod. Kids just don't listen to 'kind advices'. But at the same time I don't support severe thrashing by teachers.

Ebenezer

This doesnt make sense at all, would you say police manhandling witness and suspects is good? If your answer is NO then the same applies to corporal punishment, if a kid has personality issues its the problem of the parents, if they cant bring up their kids properly then they dont deserve kids (please dont give the usual "they spend more time with kids than parents" BS) ........i dont know why they bother to have kids if all they are prepared is to pay for them to be brought up to their requirements.

Cming to the next perspective , corporal punishment at school is not for the same reasons as home or at least with the kids best interest at heart (at least most schools). they have various motives like school's "standard" "prestige" and many other aspects that give or will give the school a social status......

Finally i dont know why everybody assumes corporal punishment makes them toe the line,have you ever seen or atleast heard from.......ahem .... reliable (you know your relatives friend's relatives distant cousin's neighbor's son) turning into the so-called "mannered" kid after corporal punishment..........it doesnt work that way.....it only makes the kid more cunning in covering his tracks.........
Just my $0.02.......Then again im rambling......

[xl_target]

Father George should have kept his hands to himself. If Corporal punishment is illegal, then what Father George did was against the law. You expect kids to be law abiding with an example like that?
Sounds like Father George needs anger management classes.
I went to school in India before Corporal punishment was banned and some of the teachers should have had their behinds kicked for what they did to the kids. Except that if I had done something like that to a teacher, I wouldn't have been able to sit down for a month because when my father would have found out he would have applied his own solution to the problem. It wouldn't have mattered if Father George had started it.

[kanwar76]

Once our sports teacher slapped me in full assembly just becasue i was in "Stand-at-ease" position while singing national anthem.

I still feel so humilated that I still want to hit him

[ebenezer]

Kanwarji,

What you did is an 'insult to national honour', you deserve it.

Yep, somebody in class 6 shouold know all about 'insult to national honour' . BTW just for the record, I was singing national anthem all proper. Only my hands were at back.

I am 33 years old now and still not able to forget that incident so you can make out how these things imact kids.

[xl_target]

Kanwarji,

What you did is an 'insult to national honour', you deserve it.

First: While you might think it is an "insult to National honor", the fact remains that he has every right to stand however he may during the singing of the National anthem. Thousands of our soldiers have died to preserve the constitution and to keep India a Democratic Republic and to secure those rights for its citizens. The preamble to the Constitution has the following line in it: ... and to secure to all its citizens; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship. Therefore while you have a right to believe it is an insult to National Honor, someone else has the right to believe it is not.

Second: Corporal Punishment is against the law and slapping a student would be considered corporal punishment. Whether you think it is right or wrong, or morally justifiable or against your religious beliefs or whatever, it is still unlawful. For someone who is supposed to teach kids, its a monumental display of bad judgement to break that law in front of the whole school. Just because he is a teacher, he is not exempt from the law.

-

[goodboy_mentor]

I remember when I was in school, many teachers in school used to behave as "terrorists" with canes, wooden rulers in hand, beating and slapping children at will. This kid has rightly asserted his rights and paid back the perpetrator of violence in the same coin. It is no business of any teacher to use abusive or violent means on any child. There have been countless incidents where children were subjected to profound tortures, misbehaviors leading to committing of suicides, going into depressions, suffering other irreparable mental and psychological harm.

[shooter]

Singing of national Anthem, so common to all of us is actually not so common in the other countries.
Singing of patriotic songs in the assembly everyday etc is actually not practiced in many countries of the world. Are they patriotic? of course.

These songs have so become a part of our lives that we dont see that it is not dissimilar to the propaganda songs sung by communists, nazis etc.

I know everyone will call me deshdrohi etc for writing this but i dont blame you, thats what we all have been taught since childhood.

What we do observe is that in times of national calamities, we all forget this and do jaap of babaji or whatever and many people in the other countries sing the national anthem. (remember the americans post 11/9).

Desh ki izzat is not done just by national anthem (nor is not singing it a sign of patriotism either) but making these propaganda rules doesnt help either.

I remember malini ramini was fined and faced court for wearing a tricolour cocktail dress. She was called many names and a big hue and cry was made about it.

Only till a few years ago, we werewnt even considered worthy of flying our own flag on our homes (and i think even today we can only do it on national holidays, if im not mistaken)

I have seen hats, t shirts, bermudas, shoes, socks, thongs even chappals with flags of countries being sold in those countries and people wearing them with pride or even for fun. But you cant say that is not patriotism.


I wont even go to the origins of our anthem as it has been discussed here before in a thread long ago.

[goodboy_mentor]

I wont even go to the origins of our anthem as it has been discussed here before in a thread long ago.

Just curious to know about it, if you could provide the link to this topic.

[essdee1972]

Speaking for myself, no amount of corporal punishment (even getting thrown out of class at the ripe old age of 25) lessened my habit of doing my own thing while some one is giving the "all important" (to him) lecture. Only now I play games on my cellphone while the MD is lecturing us on how hard we should work so he can retain his Merc!

The most expensive and exclusive (hence prestigious) schools in India today are those who do not have corporal punishment, homework, etc. Why? Because we as parents are willing to spend the extra buck to ensure that our kids do not go through the concentration camp regime we did. Result - my kid WANTS (yes, actually) to go to school! At his age (6) I had to be coaxed and cajoled and threatened every morning.

Coming to the "aaj-kal ke bachche" argument, I think this argument would have been worn out through generations right from Adam & Eve. This is what is known as generation gap. And the true sign of a mature adult is when s/he recognises him/herself in the aaj-kal ka bachcha s/he is criticising. And praises the kid for showing guts. The same guts as was shown from all fighters against injustice - Gandhi, King, et al. The same which should have been showed by us.

Also, please do not confuse a school concert with the National Anthem. Whatever be the propaganda or other controversies, the event of a National Anthem being sung cannot be equated with a bunch of little kids singing Baa Baa Black Sheep on stage (no disrespect to these kids - they probably have been corporally punished to get the coordination).

As for Father George, he should not only be sacked as principal, but also defrocked as a priest. Ordained priests are supposed to be "better human beings" (I won't go so far as to say "closer to God"), and losing tempers are not the the way they are supposed to behave! The entire teachings of Christ are based on peace!