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| Principlas and heads of schools in Mulund at a meeting held at Holy Angels School |
Principals of some of the leading schools in our suburbs have decided to disallow students access to an online networking site, which is become an addiction of sorts for these teens
Sujatha Subraman
Scrapping may be the buzzword among teens and they may have taken a liking towards this growing rage of online networking, but as far as the school authorities from our suburbs are concerned it is a strict no-no.
Principals and heads of some reputed educational institutions situated in Mulund converged at Holy Angles School in Mulund east on Wednesday, November 22, for an emergency meeting to deal with the menace of online networking.
Several students from our suburb are said to be addicted to scrapping, simply put, messaging. That’s not all. The context of these messages often demeans the school or the teachers. School authorities have objected to the misuse of the school name and objectionable remarks made by these students.
"How can we allow them to tarnish the image of our school? Before registering as a community on this site they have not taken the school’s permission. We can’t trace the ex-students but we must discipline the present batch of students. We cannot allow them to write humiliating personal remarks about their teachers because it is a site that can be viewed by people all over the globe," laments Prasad Kulkarni from Sou Laxmibai School.
Cyber cafe owners in our suburbs also revealed some startling facts. S Chandrakumar, a cyber cafe owner, near Mehul Cinema, discloses, "Out of ten computers at least seven of them are occupied by students who are hooked on to the networking site." School children also agreed that their classmates regularly visit such sites.
Interestingly, most of the parents remained blissfully ignorant about their child’s activity. "I always thought my son was a computer wizard, but I am not aware of this particular site. Now I will keep a watch on him," confesses Gita Shah, a worried mother from LBS Marg in Mulund.
Online networking is considered ’cool’ by the students, but their mentors have a different take on this. Wednesday’s meet came down heavily on this new and "disturbing" trend. Some of the teachers even contemplated on lodging a complaint with the police but decided to wait and watch.
KNS Nair, principal, Vidyaben Gardi School, Mulund west, says, "The website may have its advantages but we cannot allow our children to misuse it like this. The dignity of our profession is marred by such acts. We decided to wait instead of approaching the police right away because we do not want to ruin the future of our students. We will however be compelled to take some serious and harsh steps if this does not stop."
(When Mulund-Powai Plus logged on to the site we came across several such communities registered in the name of local schools like VPM, IES, Sharon English School, to name a few. Many of the messages were indeed indecent in nature ranging from tips given by ex-students on how to harass teachers to some objectionable personal remarks about the school authorities.)
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