As the sexual harassment allegations against a teacher in Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan (PSBB) School in Chennai had brought up the worst face of the online classes, the Tamil Nadu government has issued crucial orders to ensure that the new normal braced up by the school students goes fair and friendly to them. Chief Minister MK Stalin had on Wednesday held a review meeting with officials and asserted that a set of guidelines will be released in conducting the online classes. 

The prestigious PSBB School has recently run into outrage after a teacher Rajagopalan was accused of harassing the school students. The crime came to light earlier this week when some of the former and current students had petitioned the school management about the awful behaviour of Rajagopalan. The students had outcried their woes and underlined that Rajagopalan would appear to the online classes half-naked with only a towel wrapped up in his body.  

Rajagopalan, who was working in the school for two decades and was taking accounts and business studies, had texted to the girl students and went on to body shame them. He was also accused of calling a student for a movie and the pervert in him had come to light after the students shared their pains on social media, which had drawn major resentments against the school, as the students said that they had complained about Rajagopalan to the school management but it had failed to take action against him. 

After the allegations came to the revelation, the school had suspended him, and the Chennai police had arrested Rajagopalan, slapped a case under POCSO Act, and remanded him under judicial custody. As the allegations against the teacher had brought the worst face of the online classes, the incident had alarmed the Tamil Nadu government over formulating the mechanism over monitoring the online classes across the state as the virtual classes have become new normal and inevitable for the school students to carry out their education. The government has on Wednesday unveiled the steps on how it plans to curb the new threat for the students in online classes. 

According to reports, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has on Wednesday held a review meeting with officials and said new guidelines will be released concerning the procedures of conducting the online classes. The press release from the government has said that it has been preparing the guidelines for the online classes. The government has said that in the view of avoiding any such online harassment in the future and for the safety of the children, the school management should record all the online classes. 

The government has instructed both the school managements and Parents Teachers Association (PTAs) to form committees and both committees must review the recordings frequently. The Chief Minister has directed the authorities to install a committee with officials of the School Education Department, Higher Education Department, police officials from prevention of cybercrime against women and children, and educationalists. 

The review meeting has held at the Chief Secretariat during which the Chief Minister passed the orders and the reports say that the committee is expected to disclose a set of guidelines to the Chief Minister for conducting online classes, within one week. During the meeting, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi that a helpline would be set up to receive complaints. The complaints must be duly enquired by the cybercrime department without harming the children. The Chief Minister has affirmed that the offenders will be booked under the POCSO Act.