The Metro report on a schoolboy attacking his principal

Corporal punishment has a scarier cousin: retaliation.

Last month’s school shocker in which a 16-year-old boy punched and kicked his principal for being slapped in front of other students has reignited the debate over whether discipline is a double-edged sword.

“Students have become audacious,” said Raja McGee, the principal of Calcutta Boys’ School. “An Iraqi hurled a shoe at (George) Bush and it seemed to start a worldwide trend. The day is not far away when hitting back becomes common in schools,” he warned.

The incident that has provoked such reactions occurred during a show at St Aloysius Orphanage and Day School in Howrah on December 14.

More than 900 children and their teachers had stood stunned in the school auditorium as the Class IX student repeatedly punched and kicked his principal after he was slapped twice for changing seats in the middle of the show.

Rita Chatterjee, the principal of the Apeejay schools, said the incident could have been avoided with a little restraint.

“Gone are the days when teachers would flex their muscles and students kept quiet. Students now have to be treated as co-workers,” said Chatterjee. “The child may possibly hit back because he felt insulted,” she added.

Consultant psychiatrist J. Ram of Apollo Gleneagles Hospital feels teachers first need to unlearn a few things about discipline. “If you hit a child to show your disagreement, the child will resort to the same means to show his disagreement,” said Ram, who conducts workshops in schools for teachers to help understand their students better.

Sunita Sen of Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan said the challenge for teachers was to maintain their grip on student behaviour without doing anything that might provoke retaliation. “I do not support corporal punishment but I believe teachers should be firm in their decisions and develop the ability to explain to students why a particular act is wrong,” she added.

Seema Sapru, the principal of The Heritage School, rued the lack of laws protecting the dignity of teachers.

“There are so many laws protecting the child and his or her rights. But there is none when it comes to us,” added Basanti Biswas, the principal of Calcutta Girls’ High School.

So where does that leave the uneasy student-teacher relationship?

Apeejay head Chatterjee said teachers needed to “de-stress” to be able to deal with the changing nature of the relationship. Her school organises meetings to discuss student-specific issues every Friday.

Workshops in schools like St James, Delhi Public School, Megacity, The Heritage School and South City International School are meant to equip teachers to cope with the pressure of maintaining discipline without resorting to anything that might be construed as crossing the line.

Psychologist Salony Priya, who conducts such workshops, recommends “coffee-time discussions with parents where the points of reference should be about the child and not his or her report card”.