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Khalboalia (Nadia), Jan. 23: Two high school students in Nadia were forced to relieve themselves inside a classroom as the teacher refused to let them go to the toilet.
The teenagers — Class VIII and IX students — have not returned to their co-educational school since wetting pants in the examination hall on Thursday.
The teacher, Shankar Karak, 56, was showcaused after the boys’ families lodged a complaint with the headmaster of Khalboalia High School in Krishnagunj.
The boys had sought physical science teacher Karak’s permission to go to the toilet after the first hour of the three-hour unit test. Karak said he could not allow any student to leave the room because of an order from headmaster Shyamal Ghosh.
The boys kept writing their mathematics paper. “I asked Sir 15 minutes later if I could go to the toilet,” said one of the boys. Karak again refused.
Another teacher, Rahim Mondal, who was also in the hall, said he could not have allowed the boys to leave as Karak was senior to him.
The two boys wetted their pants within minutes of each other and fled home.
Doctors said holding back urine for a prolonged period could cause both physical and mental harm to children.
“Besides being traumatised, a child can develop urinary tract infection,” said Apurba Ghosh, the director of the Ins-titute of Child Health in Calcutta.
Karak said he wanted to “enforce discipline”.
But headmaster Ghosh denied ever issuing an order to prevent students from going to toilet during exams. “We hang our heads in shame at the attitude of Karak. We have asked him to explain his conduct,” Ghosh said.
Karak said he was sorry for what he had done for the sake of “discipline”.
He has already been sacked from the school staff council, which he used to head, and asked to reply to the notice within three days.
“I cannot show my face to the girls of my class anymore,” said one of the boys.
A group of villagers led by the boys’ fathers raided the school — about 110km from Calcutta — this afternoon and allegedly tried to assault Karak.
