Alumni of Delhi Public School RK Puram have accused staff of sexual harassment and teachers of cracking rape jokes. What can we say, asks school.
New Delhi: The alumni of a prominent Delhi school has taken to social media to call out what they allege is an unchecked culture of sexual harassment, misogyny and bigotry on campus as the #MeToo movement encourages more victims to speak out.
According to more than 10 former students, the teachers and other staff at Delhi Public School R.K. Puram were often at the forefront of such harassment, with one alleging that two teachers cracked “rape jokes” when protests over the ‘Nirbhaya’ gang rape and murder were still raging.
ThePrint reached principal Vanita Sehgal for comment but the school receptionist refused to forward the call to her, saying “she is in a meeting”.
However, Sehgal apparently dictated her statement to the receptionist. “People can write anything on social media, what is the school supposed to comment on such posts?” he quoted her as saying.
Sexual assault allegations
Alumna Supriya Ambwani wrote on Facebook that in 2012, a sexual assault case was about to be brushed under the carpet by the then principal, but wasn’t because a teacher objected.
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“When I was in Class XI, a guy in the year above me sexually assaulted a much younger girl on the school campus,” Ambwani alleged.
She said after the girl’s parents complained to the principal, the boy’s father came to school and claimed that no assault had taken place as there had been no witnesses.
The principal, said Ambwani, allegedly agreed with him.
But a female teacher who was in the room is believed to have told the father that she would file a complaint with police, telling them she had witnessed the assault because he couldn’t prove otherwise.
The principal then suspended the boy for a few days to end the matter as quietly as possible, claimed Ambwani.
Another former student alleged on Facebook Wednesday how a physics teacher “asked me to unbutton my shirt and lift up my skirt”.
The woman, who was a class 8 student then, alleged the headmistress “disregarded” her complaint.
“In eleventh grade, I was in my physics lab, where I was trying to work, [when] a lab assistant came and pinched my ass, tapped it and walked away,” she claimed.
“In the twelfth grade in the physics lab, I’m bending over my bench to line up some instrument and I turned to see that three different lab assistants had rearranged their chairs so they could look up my skirt,” she added.
Tales of sexism and misconduct
Angad Singh, a former student, narrated an uncomfortable experience he allegedly had when he asked “a very senior chemistry teacher” for a lift home.
“He and another senior chemistry teacher roasted me for about 15 minutes, telling me how I need not worry about getting raped by other men in the metro because homosexuality was re-criminalised again,” he claimed.
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The Supreme Court had overturned a Delhi High Court order to recriminalise homosexuality in December 2013.
“They were laughing,” he wrote, adding, “You would imagine teachers at least would avoid making rape jokes just a couple of months after the Nirbhaya case.”
Alumna Tanya Munjal recalled on Facebook how a psychology teacher once allegedly pulled her aside after she saw her laughing with three boys from her class.
Another former student wrote: “We were called promiscuous for having male friends, disrespectful for disagreeing with teachers…”
A former student who is now at Boston University, US, claimed she was called “a girl with no morals or character” by her class teacher in class 11 for being friends with four male classmates.
Two other students, meanwhile, have accused a Hindi teacher of “inappropriate flirting”.
Another student accused former principal Dr D.R. Saini of making a sexual remark. When she once visited his office while in Class 9, she said, she had her drum-sticks in hand. “He said ‘beti tumhe ye sab chhod ke chakla belan chalana seekhna chahiye (you should forget about all this and learn how to cook)’,” she added.
When ThePrint asked Saini for a comment, he said, “I am no longer the principal. I am the director of the DPS society now, and as a director, it is not good on my part to give a statement to any newspaper or TV channel.”