<i>Too harsh for a trivial matter</i>
A class nine student of Government Laboratory High School in Mymensingh town is suffering from headache and hearing problem following alleged beating by a teacher of the school.
The victim, Fatema Mohammad, 13, was admitted to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH) on August 7 and doctors termed the problem as 'slight conductive type hearing loss'.
She was released from the hospital the following day.
Fatema said Tipu Sultan, a science teacher of her school, hit her on the right ear on August 5 over a trivial matter.
“After my Bangla examination on August 5, Tipu Sir beat me with his shoe and cane in front of my two classmates -- Lamia and Mouri at around 1:00pm. I am facing hearing problem after this. My fault was that I had referred to his mother as aunt,” a sobbing Fatema told this correspondent.
Fatema asked her mother to take her home through the cell phone of Habibur Rahman, another teacher of the school, she said.
Fatema's mother Nurun Nahar said, “After receiving the phone call I went to the school. When I met headmistress Amena Khatun and asked who had beaten up my daughter she said the matter had been settled.”
“I returned home with my daughter. As Fatema felt pain in her ear, we took her to a doctor and later admitted her to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital,” said Nurun Nahar.
Asked about the alleged assault on Fatema, Tipu Sultan said, “I did not beat Fatema.”
However, he added, “Earlier she cut a joke about my mother during a class when I told her not to bring family matters to the class. On August 5, when I heard from her three classmates that Fatema repeated such utterances, I went out of the room with a cane to threaten her but my colleagues held me back.”
“As a complaint was submitted to me against Tipu Sultan on August 8, I formed a three-member probe committee headed by a senior teacher of the school,” said the headmistress on Tuesday.
The probe committee report submitted on Wednesday afternoon mentioned that two students, who were present during the incident, informed in writing that they saw Tipu Sultan hitting Fatema with a shoe.
Fatema's mother also lodged written complaints with the director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, deputy director of Secondary and Higher Education office, Mymensingh deputy commissioner and district education officer.
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