Bangalore: The Karnataka High court will hear the school guidelines case today and in all probability will finalize the safety guidelines that schools all over the state must follow to ensure the safety of their students in their premises.
The High Court advanced the hearing from November 3 to Thursday following the rape of a three-year-old girl in a Jalahalli school last week. On Wednesday, the City Police submitted to the court a copy of the guidelines drafted by them to increase the safety of children in schools. The police had framed the guidelines on directions from the court.
Following the July incident, which involved the rape of a six-year old girl at a posh school in Marathahalli, the City Police Commissioner had issued a set of guidelines to schools with a compliance deadline of August 31. Thirteen schools challenged the guidelines in the High Court protesting against the guidelines.
The High Court frowned on their move, especially their lack of effort to apply the guidelines of the police, and directed the city police to file criminal complaints against schools which have not made “honest efforts” to comply with the child safety guidelines by September 15.
However in a subsequent hearing, the court asked the City Police Commissioner to finalize the guidelines in consultation with senior police officers, officials in the Education Department, and others. On Wednesday, the Police submitted revised guidelines after consultations with all stake holders to the Court, which the Court will hear on Thursday and possibly finalize.
The guidelines provide for GPS, CCTV, and the presence of responsible school representatives (one male and one female) in all school vehicles under private ownership. It instructs that school vehicle contracts with private owners should make it clear that they would be responsible for law and traffic violations by drivers. Also, vehicle documents have to be verified.
In addition, the credentials of bus drivers as well as school staff (attenders, security, administration employees) have to be vetted at the nearest police station.
The guidelines recommend that each floor should have a floor vigilance officer to monitor activities in that floor. Parents are required to have identity cards bearing their child’s photograph. They are also are expected to provide one particular mobile number to school authorities, who in turn, are required to respond to calls and SMS’ originating only from that number.
Additionally, every two hours, the security in charge of the respective floors and gates should submit a status report to his/her reporting manager.
