PESHAWAR: In a harsh mode of corporal punishment, the management of Forest Model School (FMS) shaved the heads of nearly 40 students. It caused anger among the students and their parents. The parents of the affected children complained that they had not been issued any warning. The school management called a barber the other day and shaved off the heads of most of the children from Nursery to Grade-V. The FMS is a semi-government school run by the Pakistan Forest Institute (PFI), where children of the mostly low-paid employees are enrolled. Apart from the children of the PFI employees, those from the nearby universities also study in the FMS. The parents were hesitant to speak to this reporter due to the fear of rustication of their kids from the school.Some children became ill after getting the unique punishment at the school. “I had got the hair of my son trimmed last week, but even then they shaved off his head. He got sick on return from the school that day,” said one of the parents. The school administration has now asked the parents to pay the wages of the barber. This annoyed the parents further. “My heart is crying but I can’t do anything. They would expel my son from the school if I raise voice against them,” said the father of a Grade-IV student. Some of the parents, who had registered complaint with the school management, were warned of expulsion of their kids if they approach the media or stage a protest. “We are silent because we can’t afford rustication of our kids at this final term of their academic session. At this stage, we won’t be able to admit our kids in some other school,” another parent told this reporter. “Such acts shatter the self-confidence of the students. They start feeling depressed and inferior. I think students at this level need motivation and encouragement, not such kind of humiliating punishment,” said an academician. Reached for comments, Director Pakistan Forest Institute, Asif Jah confirmed that the heads of some 35 students were shaved off. He was of the opinion that the kids had lice in their hair and the school administration had sent several warning to their parents to shave their heads, but to no avail. “After the cold response from the parents, the school administration got their heads shaved so that the lice might not spread among other kids,” he argued. He said they were trying to focus attention on cleanliness besides studies and this was the reason that the students’ heads were shaved off. Some 200 boys and girl students are enrolled in the school. A parent said it is interesting that only the boy students had lice in their heads as the girl students were not even given a warning to keep their heads clean.
