The Swami Purnananda Secondary has denied allegations by a Mahaicony Creek mother who said her two sons were beaten by a karate teacher at the school.
A letter to the Stabroek News, written by the Chairman of the school’s management team Ramnauth Ramsarran, stated that last Thursday a complaint was received from a parent, who claimed her son was punished by a karate teacher.
The school said the parent was immediately informed that the school does not offer karate on its curriculum and did not have a karate teacher.
The mother, Debbie Persaud, said her 10-year-old and 11-year-old sons were beaten in the school’s dormitory by the teacher in the presence of the caretaker of the dormitory. She had stated that her youngest son did not attend the school but stayed in dormitory since their Mahaicony home was far away.
Persaud said she will take legal action against the teacher and was preparing documents to have her sons transferred. She had also made a report of the assault to police.
However, the school stated that at no point was her son punished by any teacher in the school.
The school said that as a policy it does not institute corporal punishment on pupils. “Any disciplinary action that needs to be taken is discussed first with the parents, the Parent Teacher Association and then the school’s Management Committee,” the letter stated.
It further said that the school has no control of any other activities, including karate, a student may be involved in outside of normal school hours.
Persaud, however, said that she received a call from the caretaker of the dormitory and he was upset because she had reported the issue to the media and the police. She said the man told her that her son was a troublemaker and that he had stolen money from the school.
She said her son was still in pain from the beating he received. “My son ain’t well. He hollering with pain and the (teacher) calling and telling me that he was misbehaving,” she said.
“He is mad with me because I put his name in the papers and the TV but the truth is my sons get kick up and was beaten mercilessly,” she said.
Persaud’s elder son is a student at the Swami Purnananda Secondary School while the younger one attends the St. Andrews Primary school.
