Thiruvananthapuram-based St Thomas Central School, which has been in the news for expelling two students – a boy and a girl student -- for hugging each other on campus, has decided to take them back and would be allowed to write their annual exams after Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s intervention.
According to a report by The News Minute, Tharoor, an MP from Thiruvananthapuram, who has been taking interest in the case from the beginning, called for the school management and the families of both the students for a meeting in his office on Friday.
The students were present at the meeting with their parents. The school management was represented by secretary of the Mar Thoma Educational Society Rajan Varghese, principal Sebastian T Joseph and the school’s lawyer Mridul John Mathew, according to the report.
“We ended the discussion on a positive note, though there are certain clauses to be discussed further,” the boy’s father said.
Principal Sebastian T Joseph told TNM that the meeting ended positively.
The incident took place during a cultural programme organised by the school on July 21. The girl had performed in an event following which the boy had hugged her.
According to the boy's father, the congratulatory hug was "blown out of proportion" by the school authorities and it completely "demoralised" his son.
The school suspended the boy after the incident. The girl also was not attending classes, with the school maintaining that she had not submitted the requisite documents for admission.
Soon after his suspension, the family had moved the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights challenging the decision. The panel then directed the school authorities to permit him to attend classes.
Opposing it, the church-run school management, however, moved the Kerala High court which upheld the institution's decision.
The school authorities had maintained that the boy was suspended in order to discipline him and it was upto the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to take a call on the matter.
Joseph said the girl was not a regular student and had not taken formal admission in the school. She had also not submitted the requisite documents for admission and had attended classes for only 20 days, he said.
While the boy had claimed that he had written at least three letters to the school authorities apologising for his behaviour, the principal said it was only a "lip service" and "the apology was not from his heart".
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Joseph had claimed that the student was allowed to appear for an examination in September even after an inquiry panel of teachers had found that the "five minute-long hug" was "intentional" and "with bad intentions".
(With PTI inputs)
