Mumbai: Rape-accused trustee rejoins Andheri school after bail, parents protest

The threeyearold survivor is no longer a student there but other parents are also worried about their kids Representation PicThinkstockThree months after the trustee of an international school in Andheri was arrested for allegedly raping a threeyearold student he is back to work at the institute Parents are unable to digest that even though he is yet to be cleared of the charges the accused is now working in such close proximity to their children Shockingly when they expressed their objections the management simply asked them to look for another schoolAlso read Andheri toddler rape Child rights commission asks how cops will prevent other cases of abuseOn December 18 2017 as many as 42 parents signed a petition asking that the accused trustee be barred from the school until he was cleared of all charges However their request was met with silence The conflict began on December 8 when parents were shocked to receive a circular informing them that the trustee had resumed work at the school He had just been granted bail on November 24 but was yet to be cleared of the rape charges The court also granted bail to a teacher who had been charged as his accomplice for failing to report the alleged abuseThe school email stated We are glad to announce that name of the trustee withheld has resumed attending school after months of police investigationhellip We hope for a swift ending to this extremely disturbing affair and expect normalcy to return in the life of all those who may have been affected by the affair in particular the parents teachers staff and students We need to deal with this traumatic event in the kindest way and we expect your help in this processTense meetingWhile the survivor is no longer a student at the school several parents refused to allow an alleged paedophile to work with their children Before drafting their petition a few parents even met the school management but were shocked when the accused also walked in for the meeting They were further frustrated by the managements lack of support over their concernsOne of the parents told midday On December 10 five of us went for a meeting with a school official During the meeting the official teared up and said the trustee could not have done this She said the school was doing its best but if any parent was still unhappy they could consider other options He added We pointed out that the standard practice in the education sector is to suspend the individual until the case is closed The school had asked the accused to stay away for all these months so why has he now been allowed to resume duty when the case is still onTrustee claims innocenceAround 45 minutes later the accused walked into the meeting He shook hands with everyone and spoke at length about the developments over the last six months He said he was committed to making the school a safe place for children and referred to the incident claiming nothing had happened However when one of the parents asked what would happen if he was proven guilty the trustee retorted that the parent should not think too much Another parent asked the trustee if he would have allowed the accused to return to school had it been someone else To this the trustee answered in the affirmative Only one of the parents in the meeting supported the schools decision to bring the trustee back The meeting closed with assurances from the official to open channels of communication with the parents She also offered to try and organise a meeting with all kindergarten parents so that their concerns could be addressed