Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that a police investigator has told the mother of a boy who was complaining about the beating of her son by a school principal to forget about making complaints. Furthermore, an inquiry officer of a local branch of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) also warned her from complaining further and berated her upon learning that she had sought advice from a local human rights group before appearing at their office.
CASE DETAILS:
On 13 February 2008, 13-year-old Don Kasun Aravinda Kasun was putting his shoes on as he was going to his class when the School Principal beat him on the head with his cane. The beating took place after the intermission of the programme their school were having at the time.
When Don Kasun returned home later that day, he started complaining to his mother of a headache and shortly thereafter he fainted. His mother, Mangala, noticed that there were several lumps on her son’s head. She took him to the Ambalanthota General Hospital where he received medical treatment for four days.
When Mangala tried to speak to the Principal about what had happened to her son, instead getting a proper explanation from him, he acted rudely, telling her that he was not afraid of any person. When Mangala told him her son had been a weak child since he was born and that he remains on medication, he scolded telling her “if the boy had illness it should be written and hung around his neck”.
On February 18, Don Kasun reported for school. However, in one morning assembly the principal sarcastically boasted about having punished four students, one of whom had his head swollen, obviously referring to Don Kasun. Upon hearing this, all the students laughed at him causing him public humiliation.
His mother filed a complaint before the Ambalanthota Police and even though the complaint was registered no inquiry began until March 1. At that time Mangala was told to forget the incident. The Principal, who was supposed to come for the inquiry did not appear. He likewise failed to appear for the next two inquiries on March 10 and 11.
However, when the inquiry was set for March 13 Mangala and Don Kasun were not able to attend as the child fell sick. It was on this occasion that the Principal appeared for the first time.
A police investigator later scolded Mangala for not appearing at the inquiry. She was told that due to her absence the Principal’s time had been wasted at the police station.
When the Mangala appeared with Don Kasun on March 15 in the police inquiry, the Principal was already present. Despite the presence of the police officer, Jayawickrama, the Principal threatened that he would expel Don Kasun from their school. The officer simply warned him not to threaten the boy. After the inquiry was finished that day, the principal was seen with two other persons who likewise threatened Mangala and Don Kasun that they would chase them out at the school. Nevertheless, Don Kasun returned to school.
When the principal learned that Don Karun was at school he went to the class room and told his classmates that no one should speak to him and that he was not to speak with any other students. In doing so, the principal had imposed ‘brahma-danda or Brahma punishment’, a certain punishment, for instance, in the Buddhist Order imposing a “silent punishment”; and he also threatened that those who refused to follow his orders would also be beaten.
After learning of this latest incident, Mangala once again went to the police station to make a complaint about the harassment. The Officer-in-Charge (OIC) then called the police officer, Jayawickrama, who was inquiring into the complaints of beating to question the Principal about the incident but he was not available when the Jayawickrama called.
This time, Jayawickrama, rebuked Mangala for making complaints to other authorities instead of reporting to him again as he had already handled and investigating her complaint. Mangala and her son Karun were asked to come once again to the police station. The principal, however, did not appear and until now, the police inquiry into Mangala’s complaint of the beating and subsequent harassment of her son in school by the Principal has not reached any conclusion.
Apart from making the complaint to the police Mangala also reported the incident on February 21 to the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the women and Children’s Bureau, Chairman of the Child Protection Bureau and the Attorney General (AG).
As a result of her complaint to the HRC, an inquiry began on 6 June 2008 at the Matara Branch of the HRC. There, the inquiry officer asked Mangala and her son Don Karun in the presence of the Principal and the manner in which the officer conducted the inquiry was intimidating to the complainants.
At the time, the inquiry officer downrightly blamed Mangala for failing to file a complaint with the Zonal Education Director first. He, also started asking questions from the boy, Karun, who had to relay to him what had happened with the presence of the Principal. When the principal was asked to relate what had happened, he told him he had beaten the boy on his hand and not on his head.
When Mangala objected to the Principal’s claim and his version of the story, the inquiring officer instead scolded her. When he asked her as to who had advised her to take legal action he became angry when she told him that the advice had come from a local human rights organization.
The inquiry officer then warned Mangala about taking human rights issues into the school because it would be difficult to discipline the students. He then told her not to take this matter any further and attempted to frighten her by telling her she would ultimately have to pay damages to the Principal.
When Mangala complained that the principal was harassing her through three other persons, the inquiry officer told her to report the matter to the police. He also told her that since the boy is no longer having problems in school, she should now be contented. Once again, Mangala’s complaint with the HRC in Matara Branch has not reached any conclusion.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the authorities listed below requesting for their immediate intervention to investigate this case, particularly the actions of the police and the inquiry officer of the local branch of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, who conducted the investigation into the victim’s complaints. Immediate disciplinary action must be taken against those responsible.
Please be informed that the AHRC has also written separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture calling for an intervention in this case.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear __________,
SRI LANKA: Police told a mother complaining beating of her son by a principal to forget making complaints
Name of victim: Don Kasun Aravinda, 13 years old, a resident of Palugahagodalla, Ambalangoda
Name of complainant: Mangala, she is the mother of the victim
Name of alleged perpetrators: School Principal of Ambalanthota Maha Viduhala. His name could not be immediately known as he is known only as “Principal” by the complainants
Authorities who deprive adequate action to complainants: Ambalanthota Police Station, Hambantota District I, Tangalle Division and the Matara Branch of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL)
Date of incident: 13 February to present
Place of incident: Ambalanthota Maha Viduhala
I am writing to raise my serious concern to the action taken by a police officer and an inquiry officer of a local branch of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka in regard to a complaint of beating of a school boy by a School Principal. I have learned that instead of taking appropriate and prompt action into the complaint, the police told the mother of the victim to forget about complaining; and the inquiry officer at the Matara Branch of the HRCSL warned her from complaining further.
On February 13 the Principal beats the boy, Don Kasun Aravinda, on the head with his cane as he was putting his shoes on as he was on his way to his class following a programme at their school. Later that day, the boy had to be admitted to a hospital for four days after he fainted.
When the boy’s mother, Mangala, met the Principal informing him about what had happened to her son, she asked him not to beat her son again because he was weak and had been undergoing medication. She, however, was rudely told that a written notice should have been hung around her son’s neck about the state of his medical condition. He also challenged her to make a complaint with the police.
However, when Mangala filed a complaint with the Ambalanthota Police Station, the police officer investigating her complaint, Jayawickrama, instead told her to “forget about making complaints”. Though the police have carried on with the investigation of the complaint, there has not been any conclusion into the inquiry. The manner they are treating the complainants too are inappropriate.
Apart from that, the inquiry officer of the local branch of the HRCSL has likewise handled the matter improperly. They failed to act on Mangala’s complaint adequately of which they should have been doing. Mangala was warned from making further complaints and when she told the HRC officer that she had sought advice from a human rights organisation beforehand she was verbally abused. She was further threatened that she would have to pay damages to the Principal.
The complaints the victim filed with the police and the HRCSL have not progressed any further.
I therefore urges you to make an inquiry into this incident and take legal and departmental action according to law,
a) The Principal’s actions must be inquired into. It must be established whether or not the Principal had influenced the ongoing inquiry into the case and that appropriate action must be taken if it is so. He must be held to account for harassing the boy in school, humiliating him in public, getting his fellow teachers involved in pressuring the boy to settle the complaint and for acquiescing to harass the boy.
b) The Ambalanthota Police Station has not taken proper action on the complaint. They should have not advised the complainants to drop the case and for taking lightly the incident. They, too, failed to take adequate action into the subsequent complaints of harassment on the complainants after they filed a complaint. It is also disappointing that police officer scolded the complainant for failing to appear in the inquiry once, when in fact the Principal himself has not been able to appear on three occasions.
c) The inquiry officer of the Human Rights Commission in Matara branch should likewise be investigated and held to account. The manner in which they treated the boy and his mother in the inquiry they had conducted, for instance, shouting at them and scolding the boy’s mother, frightening her that she would have to pay damages to the Principal and warning her to complain further, are completely unacceptable.
I trust that you take immediate action in this case.
Yours sincerely,
—————-
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Mr. Jayantha Wickramaratne
Inspector General of Police (IGP)
Inspector General of Police, Police Headquarters
New Secretariat,
Colombo 1
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 440440/327877
E-mail: igp@police.lk
2. The Secretary
Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka,
No. 36, Kynsey Road,
Colombo 8
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806
Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470
E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk
3. The Chairperson
National Child Protection Authority
330, Thalawathgoda Road
Madiwella,
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 778912/13/14
Fax: +94 11 2 778975
E-mail: ncpa@childprotection.gov.lk
4. The Officer-in-Charge (OIC)
Women and Children’s Bureau
25, Yst Building
Srimath Baron Jayathilake Mawatha,
Colombo 01
SRI LANKA
5. The Director
Provincial Education,
Department of Education Southern Province
Galle
SRI LANKA
6. The Zonal Education Director
Zonal Education Office
Tissamaharamaya
SRI LANKA
7. Bo Viktor Nylun
Head of Child Protection
UNICEF Sri Lanka
P.O. Box 143, Colombo
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 555 270 (6 lines)
Fax: +94 11 2 551 333
E-mail: colombo@unicef.org
Thank you
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrchk.org)
