The school had clarified in a written statement that the students were not ‘suspended’ but sent on ‘study leave’
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Political agitation intensified on Wednesday in the case of the alleged suspension of 17 students of Church School Beldih in Bishtupur for purportedly bunking class and chanting the slogan “Jai Shri Ram” in the coridoor.
The ICSE- affiliated school neither denied nor confirmed that the 17 students, including two girls, were chanting “Jai Shri Ram”, but confirmed that the students were sent home on Tuesday on a “weeklong study leave”. The right-wing group Shiksha Satyagraha and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ wing of the RSS termed the leave as ‘suspension’.
Members of the Sampoorna Hindu Samaj, Jamshedpur Tiger Club, KesariSena, My Durbar SevaSangh, Student AJSU and VHP took to the road regarding the matter. They also submitted a memorandum to Vineet Kumar, the District Superintendent of Education (DSE) demanding action on the school.
According to sources, the school’s management got to know about these protests in the early hours on Wednesday, when they decided to revoke the so-called ‘suspension’ and asked the students to return to school. The parents told the media that the school had asked the students to resume classes on Thursday.
Lillian Peterson, the Principal of the school, did not speak to the media in this matter and the management said that it wanted no more controversy. Later, in a press release on Wednesday, it clarified that it never suspended any student.