Missionary School teacher punishes 5 year old student by tearing fistful of her hair
By Angsuman Chakraborty, Gaea News NetworkWednesday, March 16, 2005
A five year old girl failed to bring a plastic bag to school and paid a “heavy price”. She is now in a state of shock.
The picture looks horrible. If there is sufficient interest I can scan a copy, though I would rather not.
This event has been widely reported in all local papers.
KOLKATA: Five-year-old Virnica Gupta, a nursery student, forgot to take a polythene bag to school on Tuesday. This angered her teacher so much that she tore off a fistful of the child’s hair. The teacher, Ruma Pal, was arrested on Wednesday night, within hours of the parents filing a complaint with the police.
Initially the parents tried to sort it out with the school. When the school authorities did not take any action and deferred the process they were forced to file a complaint with the police.
The incident happened at the Salt Lake branch of Our Lady Queen of the Missions School, one of the city’s top institutions. On Monday, Virnica’s teacher had told the class to bring polythene bags to school the next day. Virnica forgot to inform her parents and, consequently, reached school on Tuesday without the bag.
That was enough to make Ruma fly off the handle. She first scolded Virnica and then pulled her by the hair, allegedly tearing off a whole bunch from the right scalp. When Virnica returned from school, her mother had her examined by family physician P.P. Gupta, who found “bruises” on the scalp. “Her hair had indeed been pulled out,” Gupta told TOI. Virnica is in a state of shock.
Source: Times of India and other news papers like Anadbazar (written in Bengali), The Statesman
Times of India was unable to contact the school. Anandabazar Patrika did. The school authorities response was something to the effect that they are trying to serve…God will protect them.
They hired incompetent staff who isn’t capable of handling a child, has anger management problems. Then they failed to take any action after the incident. Now they hope that God will protect them. If they couldn’t fool us, how can they hope of fooling the God?
Let me know your thoughts.
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January 13, 2008: 8:54 am
how can i be part of the ministry for me to be an international student,i will appreciate if there is a reply to my reguest.my e-mail is seunsyo@yahoo.com |
 jamie |
September 14, 2006: 9:07 am
It was a 5 yr old, me being a 14 yr old i can relate i was abused as a small child and the teacher only did it to feel powerful, that’s wrong…hair pulling hurts and i swear to my god if that teacher had done that around me i would have put her out! |
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jamie |
September 14, 2006: 9:06 am
Dude, ripping hair off a small child’s head is inhumane! that stupid teacher should be clapped in irons! |
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August 20, 2006: 4:58 pm
Please let me have the e.mail andd landmail address of Mr.Sabyasachi Dutt sent to shreeadya@gmail.com, if he is my long lost friend from EVT Stuttgart. rajamohan. |
 Anuradha Dhupia |
August 7, 2006: 10:50 pm
As an ex- student of the school, I would like to say that our teachers have always been very caring and affectionate. Re: the incident, my query is, is it practically posible to tear off a clump of hair from any child’s head the way it was alleged.The media should not condemn a teacher irresponsibly without first verifying the facts |
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December 30, 2005: 1:20 pm
Well I think that a school teacher cannot be so inhumane as to tear of a fistful of hair from a girl”s scalp.There must have been some other problem in the classroom,some kind of a fight between friends,that could have resulted in such an unexpected mishap.The possible thing could have been that the parents of the girl child must have had some personal grudge against the teacher or even the school concerned. Vasundhara |
 Sabyasachi Dutt |
September 18, 2005: 8:07 am
I was shocked to read about the cruel punishment and mishandling of a five year old girl. According to my observation in India it happens at home of every class of society also, parents mishandling their own children. Children and youngsters are forced to be a slave to authority. It is child abuse. Physical punishment and torture should be banned by law. Sabyasachi Dutt |
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May 24, 2005: 5:14 am
Yes, I have. Sure, she had trauma and she was reported crying for long period after that. Surely you cannot expect her to cry even 24 hours later, can you? I think I have rather mildly worded it! |
 Rana |
May 24, 2005: 3:41 am
This article could have been worded better have you seen the picture of Varnika Gupta? |
Opaleye Oluwaseun A