Date:21/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/21/stories/2006122126990400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Principal wrongly implicated'

Special Correspondent

It is a plot to tarnish his image, says manager

BANGALORE: St. Claret Educational Society, which runs the St. Claret School in Jalahalli, has said that school principal Fr. Mathew, charged with misbehaving with students, has been wrongly implicated and victimised.

In a press release, St. Claret School manager Fr. Joseph Mathew said the episode had caused a lot of pain to students, teachers and parents as well as the management, as Fr. Mathew, who was instrumental in the development of the institution, had been wrongly implicated.

Referring to the allegation that Fr. Mathew misbehaved with students during a tour to Delhi, the manager pointed out that the principal was never alone with any student during the trip.

He accompanied the students along with other teachers. Besides, the allegations of misbehaviour had been raised three months after the tour, the manager noted.

Staff meeting

When the management made enquiries with the staff who accompanied the students on the Delhi trip, they said that they had not noticed or heard anything in this regard. At the staff meeting held on Tuesday, the teachers had made it clear in writing that all such allegations were false, he said.

No complaint or allegation of this nature had been raised in the parent-teacher meetings held in the intervening period, he said.

"We have not received a single complaint of this sort against Fr. Mathew either from teachers or students and their parents during the last six years during which he served as principal," he said.

Stance on discipline

Fr. Joseph Mathew termed the episode as a meticulously executed plot to tarnish the image of the principal.

He suspected that the principal's uncompromising stand on discipline which had led to firing of some staff and admonishing of a few students could be a reason for such a campaign. He alleged that a group of about 100 persons had attacked the school building and the neighbouring St. Thomas Church and beat up the priests on December 17. On the next morning, a group of people shouted slogans against the principal in front of the school gate. The crowd stopped the students and parents from entering the school premises.

They even destroyed the property of the school and attacked people who questioned their action, he alleged. "Even the Archbishop of Bangalore who arrived at the scene was attacked," Fr. Joseph Mathew said.