'Barberic' penalty: Maharashtra teacher suspended for snipping student's hair

In a shocking incident, a schoolteacher here has been suspended for snipping off a student's hair in front of the entire class, officials said.

The 'barberic' incident happened on July 17 at the Vishrantwadi Pune International School, shocking the academic community and parents in Maharashtra's educational hub.

A Class 6 student, Aryan Amit Waghmare, 10, was allegedly meted out the strange 'punishment' by his teacher Shweta Gupta, as the entire classroom looked.

According to the student's mother, Aditi Waghmare, the teacher grabbed a pair of scissors and snipped off Aryan's hair from the front and the sides, spoiling his hairstyle and looks.

"No reason was given to us for such a penalty... This is the second time such an incident has happened with my son. Earlier, in the third week of June, his hair was similarly cut off, but we did not take it too seriously," a distraught Waghmare told IANS.

This time, the Waghmares went to the Vishrantwadi Police Station and complained about the incident following which the school authorities were summoned.

"What happened was wrong... We warned the school management that such things should not be repeated. The school authorities informed us that the concerned teacher had been suspended," said Vishrantwadi Police Station Inspector Sangita D. Patil.

However, Patil added that the parents have not lodged a formal complaint, so the police have yet to register an offence against the school or the teacher.

When contacted by IANS, school Vice Principal Jaishree Kadam confirmed that the teacher Shweta Gupta had been suspended, but declined to comment further.

Not satisfied, the Waghmare plan to initiate legal action against the schoolteacher for "causing severe trauma to the child, who is now scared of attending school".

This is the second major incident which has rocked Pune's educational fraternity in the past fortnight.

Earlier this month, the MIT Vishwashanti Gurukul School, Kothrud had created a furore after it mandated that all girl students must sport only "white or beige coloured underwear" below their uniform white skirts.

The bizarre order was hastily revoked on July 5 after direct intervention of Education Minister Vinod Tawde and a probe by the regional education department.

--IANS

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