In a shocking incident of corporal punishment, a private school in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district has allegedly forced minor students to stand bare-feet on frozen snow. The school namely A-One School, Pahloo, was running winter tuition center in the school itself.
The pictures of the incident, which went viral on social media, evoked outrage. The pictures purportedly showed some ‘pheran’-clad students—both boys and girls— with their shoes and socks cast off, standing on a thick layer of frozen snow in the open ground.
“This is shocking beyond words,” wrote one netizen sharing the picture on Facebook. Another tweeted: “If it is true . . . (school) administrators must be made to stand on the same snow barefoot during the night!”
Taking cognizance of the issue, the authorities sealed the school and initiated inquiry. “It is being ascertained that whether the students were humiliated for not paying tuition fee or something else (scuffle),” Chief Education Officer (CEO), Kulgam Muhamad Ashraf Rather told Greater Kashmir.
He said that the school has been sealed and the inquiry committee constituted to probe the matter.
However, the initial reports suggested that two groups of students had entered into a scuffle following which they were punishment in this way.
Meanwhile, the police have also taken cognizance of the matter. “The management of the coaching center has tendered unconditional apology and gave it in writing that such incidents won’t be repeated,” a police official said.
However, the locals said that a mere apology won’t do, and demanded that the culprits be booked for corporal punishment.