SRI LANKA: Teachers deprive a student from receiving education after getting forcible statement

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the forcible deprivation of the education of a 13-year-old student by teachers in Sri Lanka on 19 November 2007. The teachers allegedly forced her to sign a statement that she had been raped and is accordingly pregnant, which a medical report later proved to not be true. The principal issued a leaving certificate and did not allow her to come to the school.

CASE DETAILS:

Nirosha Virajini, a 13-year-old girl and student of the Ratnapura/Elapath Maha Vidyalaya was seen talking with a boy under a tree in the forest adjoining her school. On 15 November 2007, during the second period in school, Nirosha Virajini was called by a teacher called Patricia to the staff room. When she went to the room, there were many teachers including Patricia, and others called Kumudu, Ganga, Indika, Premalatha and Somalatha.

These teachers crowded around and proceeded to accuse Nirosha of having a love affair with a boy in Patricia’s class, subjecting her to great discomfort. They asked whether she had been raped by the said boy and whether she was pregnant, then forced her to proclaim that both were the case. Disturbed and upset, she said that she did not understand what the teachers were asking.

Then teachers Patricia and Ganga said that they would consult master Dayaratna, another teacher in the school, and left the staff room. When they returned they continued their questioning, and pressured Nirosha Virajini to write a letter stating that she had an affair with a boy in the school. They also made her write that she was raped by the said boy, and is now pregnant.

At that point, the Home Science teacher took her to the Home Science class room where the principle, her class teacher Kamudu, a prelate who was a teacher in the school and masters Dayaratna and Nandana questioned again. The boy in question, Udesh Manjula, was also there.

Teachers Nayana and Nandana took it upon themselves to again ask a series of unwarranted questions for about 15 minutes, causing considerable embarrassment. However Nirosha says she did not understand most of the questions. Then Master Dayaratna told her to bring her mother to school the following day. Udesh was told to bring his father.

On November 16, Nirosha Virajini’s mother was taken to the Home Science class room, to a meeting with the same teachers from the previous day’s events. Master Dayaratna then told Nirosha’s mother that her daughter was having a love affair with a boy in the school, that she was raped by the boy in the forest and that she should be taken to a doctor. The mother was also instructed to lodge a complaint with the Women and Children’s Bureau of the Ratnapura Police, while not harming the name of the school. Master Dayaratna and the principal both then stated that Nirosha was no longer welcome at the school and should find another.

The teachers got Nirosha Virajini’s mother to sign a statement written in a book, without letting her read its contents, or know what was written. Mother and daughter returned home at about 10:30am.

On November 17, Nirosha’s mother accordingly took her daughter to make a complaint at the Women and Children’s Bureau of the Ratnapura Police station. She told them that the school had asked them to make the complaint. A statement was recorded from both Nirosha and her mother. They were asked to sign the statements without having read them or having them explained.

On November 19, Nirosha Virajini went to school to sit for the year end exam, but was scolded and chased away by the principal. She did not try to return to the school.

Subsequently on November 24, according to procedure, Nirosha was accompanied by her mother and a female police officer of the Ratnapura police to a Ratnapura General Hospital where she was subject to a medical examination. The doctor who examined Nirosha Virajini declared that she had not been raped and that she was not pregnant.

On 9 January 2008, Nirosha Virajini’s parents then went to her school to request that their daughter be allowed to continue her schooling. The principal however expressly denied this and issued a leaving certificate against her and her parents’ will.

Nirosha’s father Bathalawattalge Gamini then sent a written complaint, dated 11 January 2008 to the Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, the Inspector General of Police, the Provincial Director of Education Ratnapura, the Director of Education Sabaragamuwa and the Officer-in-Charge of the Child and Woman’s Bureau.

Nirosha Virajini has neither been allowed to go to back to school nor introduced to another potential school.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the relevant authorities listed below and request them to take immediate and appropriate action to restore the right to education of this 13-year-old girl. Also urge them to take disciplinary action against the unethical practices of the principal and teachers of the Ratnapura/Elapath Maha Vidyalaya.

The AHRC writes a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education and on the question of torture calling for their intervention into this case.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER