A case has been filed against a teacher from a Noida school for allegedly losing his temper at a special needs child and repeatedly hitting him because he couldn’t follow along with a lesson and answer questions. 

The parents of the boy filed a first information report (FIR) on Saturday stating that their 10-year-old son has been studying in Green Ribbon International School in Noida Sector 55 and when they had got him admitted there, they were assured he would get the special attention he needs and be kept safe. 

They said they found out through a video circulated on a school WhatsApp group that a teacher, Anil Kumar, had thrashed their son, subjected him to “grossly inhuman treatment” and harassed him “physically and mentally”. The incident, they said, amounts to a “crime against humanity”.

The video shows Mr Kumar sitting with the boy and getting him to do what appears to be a ‘match-the-following’ exercise with objects and activities. When the boy fails to answer a few times, the teacher shouts at him and hits him on the hand. 

As the teacher gets angrier and stands up, the staff member filming the video pans the camera to other students, instructing one to sit properly and another to have his food. Mr Kumar can be heard in the background shouting at the boy and so can the sounds of a person hitting another. Mr Kumar is then seen pulling the boy, who is still seated, and shaking him violently. 

“In the video, we can see that our child is being beaten up very violently. It is clearly visible in the video that he (Mr Kumar) is behaving very violently even though he knows that he is dealing with a child. You can see in the video how hard he is hitting our son; he could have been seriously injured,” the parents said in Hindi in the FIR. 

“He is a special child who cannot understand his daily routine. And he needs special care. Special children are taught in this school, which is why we got our child admitted there. And the school management assured us that he would be safe there. Our son is scared because of this incident and is deeply distressed. This kind of treatment towards a child with special needs is not only a crime in law, but also against humanity,” they said. 

The parents have also named the school principal and vice-principal in the FIR, claiming they were aware of earlier similar incidents. The principal, the parents said, has assured them that the teacher would be suspended.