Pics: Joshwa D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JD)
Mangaluru, Aug 4: "Arabic, Karate, German and French classes for students of St Thomas Aided Higher Primary School were started with the permission of the parents and the school has not imposed any language on student except those which are part of the curriculum," said Melwyn Braggs, the headmaster of St Thomas School in Bondanthila which was raided by Sri Rama Sene activists on July 30 alleging that Arabic was being 'forcibly' taught to the students.
Issuing a clarification in a press meet here on Thursday August 4, he said that the school has been teaching the additional languages and Karate from four years. "Following a request from parents to teach Arabic we started the classes for interested students from standards 6 and 7. Even on the day of the raid, out of the 69 students from the two classes, only 40 were in the Arabic class, and all of them were from all the three major religions. The Arabic classes are conducted on Fridays from 9 to 10 am and Karate is taught from 9 to 10 am on Saturdays.
"On July 30, the leaders of the Sri Rama Sene not only entered the class without the permission of the teacher but also alleged that we were carrying on 'conversion' and were teaching Urdu to students. I answered one of the SRS activist that I was a Catholic and the school is a Catholic institution. When that is the case how can conversion to Islam be carried out in the school," he said.
"Among the miscreants who were 30-40 in number, three of them were my old students. When I told them that they could have clarified the matter with me, the president of the SRS Anand Shetty Adyar raised his voice stating that I must speak only to him. He also snatched away books from the children to examine them. The frightened children ran to the teacher and some of them started wailing. Even I, being the headmaster of the school, do not enter a classroom without the permission of the teacher. But in this case we have been humiliated and an atmosphere of terror was created. Unfortunately, they were supported by a few from the media.
"The students have been mentally disturbed by the developments. Even the teachers are scared to speak to strangers. The city police commissioner has promised protection and has told to continue with the additional classes. The police visit the school every day two or three times," Braggs said.
"We have addressed this press conference just to clarify various false stories that were being published in the various media," he aded.
Correspondent of the school Fr Robert Crasta, school administration committee members John Prakash Pinto, Antony D'Souza and Edward D'Souza were present.