Current affairs

After PSBB School, alumni from a top university in TN reveal what happened to them!

By alagu, 28 May, 2021
PSBB, Tamilnadu, Chennai

When the shocking sexual allegations against a teacher in Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan (PSBB) School in Chennai had triggered a fresh episode of the #MeToo movement in the city as the incident at the PSBB had unearthed similar allegations from other schools in the city, a group of former students of a top university in Tamil Nadu has now revealed that they also had faced such sexual assaults from professors and staff members. 

According to reports, over 1000 alumni of Sastra University in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu have addressed its management demanding immediate action and investigation into the various allegations of sexual harassment against its staff. The former students of one of the popular varsities had also urged the management to form guidelines and policies to address the concerns faced by the students who are less than 18 years of age.

The former and current students of the Sastra University have also revealed their experiences on how they were sexually harassed by few staff members including professors. They said that they had faced obscene and sexual remarks and several violations of the physical, emotional, and sexual boundaries of the students. By revealing what had happened to them, the students had underlined in the letter that several complaints were moved to the management but no proper action was initiated on the complaints against the staff members. 

The reports say that around 1300 alumni of the varsity had come together to sign a petition urging the management to initiate immediate action and response to the complaints and the former students had also expressed unity with the students who had experienced such horrible incidents. The alumni had also demanded the management of the university to set up an Internal Committee with accord to the guidelines of Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the workplace with elected student representatives and external members. 

They urged that if the varsity has the Internal Committee, it should conduct regular sessions for the students about the procedures and legal help available to them if they face any harassment. In the letter, the students pressed the demand of probing and initiating necessary action against the accused professors as the harassment had happened to the students when the professors were working at the varsity. 

Former student of Sastra University Ramita Rajaa had taken to Twitter and shared a letter that the alumni had written to the varsity's management. The #MeToo movement in Chennai has been growing rampant as several women leaders and celebrities have been voicing against the sexual allegations faced by the students at schools. 

The awful allegation came to light last Sunday when teacher Rajagopalan, working at PSBB School, was accused of harassing several girl students. He was suspended by the school and Chennai police had arrested him and lodged him under judicial custody. Amid the demand to the government to enact laws towards the safety of the students, two more complaints of sexual harassment were filed against Rajagopalan on Friday, gripping up the pressure against him amid escalating trouble to the PSBB School. 

 

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