West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, who has earlier opposed the uniform civil code in favour of triple talaq, has now said he does not ‘support lesbianism in schools’. On 8th March, a Kolkata school had allegedly ‘accused’ 10 girls of being lesbians and obtained a letter of admission that they touched fellow classmates ‘inappropriately’, sparking protest by the parents. The headmistress has reportedly said that their aim of making the girls write such letter is to ‘bring them back on right course’.
Its a false allegation. We’ve not made any video. Students did something naughty for which guardian meeting was held. Internal matters have been escalated to authorities: Sika Sarkar,Headmistress, Kamala Girls’school on students allegedly made to write they are lesbians #Kolkata pic.twitter.com/ockgGfDVAk
— ANI (@ANI) March 14, 2018
Reacting to the same, Chatterjee said that he won’t support the ‘idea of lesbianism in schools’. He also said that such incident (of lesbianism) is ‘against the ethos of Bengal’. On Wednesday, Chatterjee told reporters that the department is not taking the incident lightly.
Parents, on the other hand, have accused the school of doing this in an attempt to cover up allegation of sexual harassment by a school employer.
13-year old doesn’t know meaning of lesbian. Those who wrote it were forced to do so by school. This is being done to suppress molestation case on one of their employees: Victim’s father on students allegedly made to write they are lesbians by Kamala Girls’ school #Kolkata pic.twitter.com/ZweRv6yfkw
— ANI (@ANI) March 14, 2018
According to reports, a parent told media persons present that “If two persons hold hands, or put an arm on each other shoulders, that does not mean they are lesbians.”
Earlier, in February, one of the non-teaching staff of the same school was arrested on the charge of sexually abusing a class nine student.
