Case:
You are the principal of a girls’ residential high school. One day a girl from a hostel complains that her warden, a lady who is also her class teacher, had beaten her last night for falling asleep early. As per of hostel is that every student should study till 10 pm. Because of the beating by Lady warden, the girl has suffered minor injury on her head. The girl is requesting you to allow her to go home for treatment. From your own experience you are aware that , things might turn into bad shape and also the issue could be sensationalised by the media, which in turn would affect the reputation of your school.
Answer
In this situation, we have two three short term challenges and one long term. Short term includes treatment, safety and counselling of the girl, immediate inquiry about the situation, to have a discussion with the girl’s parent and finding a solution based on enquiry and discussion. The long term would include the relooking at the rules and the staff- student relationship.
Based on the above I will take the following steps
- Call the doctor, counsellor, talk to the girl and understand her problems. Ensure her safety both physically and mentally.
- Immediately after conduct as enquiry and find the actual source of the problem and events with valid proofs and evidences
- After the enquiry, there are two possibilities
- The Hostel Warden is guilty: I will take the immediate and appropriate disciplinary action like suspension till the time full-fledged enquiry and outcome doesn’t come out.
- The girl is making false allegations: I will call the parents and will ask the girl to explain, if the girl doesn’t accept her mistake, I will wait for the full-fledged enquiry results to come out. In the meantime, the girl can stay in the hostel under separate safety measures or can stay with her parents.
- In the long term, I will visit the entire rule book and staff’s student relationship to ensure not only such things but other similar likely mishaps don’t take place. One more important thing here would be to ensure no false allegations going into the media. As the above steps would ensure this doesn’t happen but if it happened, I would address the media and explain the prompt steps by the school authority
