Disabled children forced to clean school toilet in TN, teacher arrested

VIRUDHUNAGAR: The teacher of a government-aided school for the intellectually disabled (CSI School for the Intellectually Disabled) near Sivakasi was arrested on Thursday for allegedly forcing three Dalit students to clean the school’s toilet. As many as 104 students, including 27 girls from Classes 1 to 10, study in the school, and 35 teaching and non-teaching staff work here. The incident, believed to have taken place a few days ago, came to light after a video of three boys cleaning the toilet of the school was circulated on social media. On Thursday, officials from the Welfare of Differently Abled Department initiated an inquiry with all the staff, the students in the video, and the school management officials, regarding the incident. “The report of the inquiry will be submitted to the district collector and further action will be taken accordingly,” a senior official from the department said. Sources from the school management said they have assigned three workers to clean the toilets daily. “This apart, another person, who is not part of the school, cleans the toilet every week. The intellectually disabled students who are seen cleaning the toilets in the video belong to Classes 5, 6, and 8. We got to know that they were instructed by Immanuvel, one of the teachers in the school, to clean the toilet,” they said, adding he had purposely done so with the motive of spoiling the school’s reputation. An official said Immanuvel, a government teacher working in the school for more than a decade, had forced the students to clean the toilet, recorded the activity, and shared it on social media. “Immanuel is believed to have been angered after another teacher in the school was appointed to a higher post,” the official said. The school management lodged a complaint against the teacher to the Thiruthangal police. He was booked under various sections including the SC/ST POA Act, Disability Act, and Juvenile Justice Act.