School principal makes 80 girls go home sans shirts, faces probe

DHANBAD: The woman principal of a prominent private school in Dhanbad allegedly made 80 Class X girls remove their uniform shirts, on which the students had inscribed messages for each other to celebrate "Pen Day" on the last day of school earlier this week, prompting deputy commissioner Madhvi Mishra to order a probe by a five-member committee on Saturday.

The DC's probe order came after horrified parents and Jharia MLA Ragini Singh took up the matter with the school management and district administration on Saturday. Incensed parents claimed that the principal disapproved of the students having written on each other's shirts on the last day of their pre-board exams on Thursday (Jan 9) and asked them to remove the same. The girls went home wearing only their blazers with no shirt underneath.

The accused principal, meanwhile, refuted the allegations saying she had just ordered the students to take off their shirts before going home. "I didn't ask them to open their shirts and go. I told them to go in proper uniform only and not to linger around," she told reporters on Saturday.

The DC said she spoke to the parents and students about the issue. "It's a matter of serious concern. Based on the findings and the probe report, action will be taken. If needed, an FIR would be lodged," she said, adding that the committee, headed by sub-divisional magistrate Rajesh Kumar, had already launched an investigation.

"We are interrogating some of the staff members and teachers of the school who were present at the time of the incident. Besides, we have collected CCTV footage of different locations of the school," SDM Kumar said. Calling the principal's action shameful, MLA Ragini Singh said: "I am shocked how a woman principal can behave like this. The teenage girls are in trauma following the episode."