http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20070704023622&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+-+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0
SOUTHERN NEWS - TAMIL NADU Jul 5, 2007 HM accused of sex abuse, extortion Wednesday July 4 2007 12:57 IST TIRUCHY: All the seven women teachers and the girl students of Nehru Memorial Municipal School, Kondayampettai, in Thiruvanaikoil, have charged the headmaster with indulging in acts of sex abuse, forcible collection of money and discrimination against Dalits. According to sources, the strength of the school is about 260 and a majority of them are Dalits. Except the Headmaster, Rajendran, all the seven teachers are women. "You might have heard of students being irregular to school. Strangely, the Headmaster of this school is irregular. He frequently absents himself. Despite complaints to the DEEO on several occasions, no action has been taken. DEEO Pazhaniappan made a surprise visit to the school on February 13, 2007 when he himself found Rajendran absent, as usual, without submitting any leave letter. However, no action has so far been taken," said a teacher, on condition of anonymity. According to another teacher, Rajendran is in the habit of borrowing money from the teachers. If any teacher refused to lend money to him, he would allegedly resort to character assasination and complain to higher officials that the teacher was immoral. There are complaints of sex abuse on girl students against him. However, the parents do not come forward to lodge a compalint against him keeping in mind the future of students. He was transferred from Melur school to this school just one year ago on a similar complaint. The villagers there had laid siege to the school and even gone to the extent of locking it. They relented only when Rajendran was immediately transferred. "He forcibly collects money from students on some pretext or the other," a parent said. Strangely, Rajendran is accused of having disbursed the salary for the month of May, 2007 to the teachers at a lodge and that too after the school hours in the evening, much to the embarrasment of the women teachers. He had also distributed saris and blouses to all the teachers recently. When the correspondent of this website's newspaper visited the school on Tuesday to get his version, Rajendran was, as usual, absent. Assistant HM Mallika Devi said he was on leave. When questioned, she said he had not submitted any leave letter. When contacted, DEEO Pazhaniappan admitted that Rajendran was absent on the day when he visited the school. Pazhaniappan, however, declined to comment when asked why no action was taken. When the matter was taken to the notice of Collector Ashish Vachhani, he gave an assurance that he would direct the DEEO to take appropriate action against the headmaster.
