New Delhi: Nearly a week after a slapping video featuring some students of Noida's Pathways School became viral on social media, the Director of the School has called it "an act of two participants who behaved stupidly."
Accessed by CNN-News18, official response by School Director Shalini Advani further dismissed the allegations by the mother of the Class X boy who was slapped that it was an act of bullying. She suggested that it was a 'slap-bet'.
"It is a fact that the child who got hit was the one who laid the bet. In that sense, it was not an act of bullying but an act with two participants, who behaved stupidly," stated the letter addressed to the parents of the School.
Advani further blamed the "hunger for sensationalism" in the country that promoted wide sharing of the video across social media platforms.
"Finally, I must share my unhappiness at the way in which this episode was shared across social media by parents and families...While I wholly understand the concern and sense of ownership of the school culture, it was shared and forwarded in a way which was not appropriate...sharing and forwarding thjs spreads only half the truth," said the Director in her letter.
Advani urged the parents to also teach their children at home the perils of violence and the value of respecting others while the School will ensure that children, on making mistakes, learn and reform to become better human beings.
She apprised the parents that the child, who landed the slap on September 4, has been suspended from school for a month wheras two others involved in the incident have been suspended for two weeks each. These two had filmed the episode and later shared it.
Apart from raising an alarm over violence and bullying in schools, the episode also raised questions on kids' access to smartphones inside the educational institutions and the regulation of usage, both by teachers and parents.
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