This is the season of love, but not in schools ofcourse. During the Valentine Week, we have to take extra measures to ensure students do not engage in malicious activities, but never did I think that I would get caught in this "lover's week" so bad that I would end up in a police station. Yes, I was once threatened with an FIR and had to stand in the police station to explain why a Class 10 student fell in love with me.

The incident dates back to pre-Covid era when we naively believed that children were pure souls who could mean no harm to anyone. While I still believe in that, I am more aware now that its the parents who turn their children into brats and blame schools and teachers for this. A few years back, around the Valentine's Week, a Class 10 student brought a rose in my Hindi class. Being a 25-year-old teacher, I assumed that the rose was for a fellow student of his and my mind immediately started thinking on how to protect the girl and ensure that the boy doesn't harass the girl or their classmates don't tease anyone. To my surprise, the student walked to the front of the classroom with full confidence and kneeled down on a knee infront of me with the rose staring at me.

It felt like a truck hit me at full speed. In that moment, I somehow knew that things were about to get bad, but I underestimated the intensity of it.

A few seconds after the incident happened, I scolded the kid and asked him to return to his seat. I finished my class and reported the incident to the Principal who advised me to not have any direct conversations with the kid, and also advised me to treat the kid as any other child and not have any bias against him. We thought the matter was over.

The next day when I reached school, I was greeted by words of caution from my colleagues who told me that child's parents were sitting in the Principal's Office. Few minutes later, I was ordered to report to the Principal's Office, and my heart sank thinking that the child would be scolded for his innocent mistake. But little did I know that it was me who was in trouble, and not theRaja Beta.

As soon as I entered the Principal's Office, my Principal introduced me to the parents, and the kid's mother immediately started pointing at me and blaming me for 'dressing up in a revealing fashion'. I was told that it was my fault that I wore my hair down rather than putting it in a bun. Helpless, I looked at my Principal, only to realise that she, too, had given up in front of the 'rich clients' of the school. I tried to take a stand for myself and explained the situation, but the parents believed that their "innocent boy" was lured by me and then embarrassed in front of his whole class by me.

'The Principal could only do so much to help me'

Just when I thought that things could not get worse, the father of the child got up and said 'we just came here to tell you that we are filing an FIR against your teacher for leading our son astray who is not even an adult right now. My Principal and I could not believe what was happening and we pleaded them to not take such drastic actions. But their decision was made and we had to follow them to the nearby police station where we explained the situation to the Inspector and my school had to pay the parents certain amount to ensure they do not file an FIR against me. Naturally, I resigned from that school within a month of this incident, and later quit the profession as I realised that I had lost that passion of teaching and I was constantly scared of what a parent or student could blame me for now.

I grew up in a world where we were taught that our teachers are gurus and should come before parents or God, but sadly I am teaching in a world where teachers fall in the lowest rank of respect. For the betterment of the future of children, I hope parents realise the harmful effects of coddling their wards.

(Times Now Digital has started a limited series on teachers' experiences in the recent times. In this series, teachers share their first-hand experiences on how the profession has changed from being treated as Gurus to mere service providers. More teachers can share their good or bad experiences with usat [email protected])

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