Four girls dismissed from school for consuming beer

Four students of Class 11 at the Government Girls School in Tiruchengode in Tamil Nadu have been dismissed from school for consuming beer in their classroom, an education department official said on Tuesday.

Confirming the development, S. Gopidoss, chief educational official in Namakkal district, told IANS over phone on Tuesday: "Four girls were given transfer certificates by the school for consuming beer in the classroom."

Tiruchengode, part of Namakkal district, is around 400 km from Chennai.

However, psychology experts feel that children at this age would be on experimental mode and they should have been counselled and that the punishment was severe.

As part of the birthday celebrations of one of them, the girls mixed beer in soft drinks and drank it.

They were found in an inebriated condition by a school teacher.

"The incident happened on Saturday, November 21, and the disciplinary action was taken on Monday," Gopidoss said.

The school headmistress was not available for comment despite several attempts by IANS.

In July, a Class 12 student in Coimbatore created a ruckus on the road in an inebriated condition. She was taken to a police station and handed over to her parents.

"Societal changes have a big impact on adolescents. They are on the experimentation and pleasure seeking mode," Latha Janaki, a psychologist and psychotherapist based here, told IANS.

According to her, the school teachers should have found out why the girls resorted to celebrating by drinking beer.

"Then they could have counselled the students. The students would have realised their mistake and would have corrected themselves," she added.

According to her, nowadays even girls in rural areas think that they have to be at par with the opposite sex in all aspects and it could be the trigger point for the students.

"With the changes in the society and the media exposure, school teachers should guide the students -- boys and girls -- from Class 7 onwards. They should be taught the cause and effects, repercussions of their improper acts," Latha Janaki said.