Child rape case: Police issue tough guidelines to schools

In the fallout of alleged rape of a six-year old girl at a public school that triggered public outrage, police today issued tough guidelines to schools here for safety of children and warned of prosecution in the event of its non-compliance.
Under the guidelines, school buses should fix GPS and CCTV cameras and drivers should be isolated and not allowed to mingle with the children after they had parked the vehicles.
"Unnecessay interaction with the children... That should be avoided because we have found that these people also have been accused in some cases," Bangalore Police Commissioner M N Reddi told reporters releasing the guidelines.

Schools are required to depute one Floor Vigilance Officer, who would sit in a transparent cabin, where he could keep a watch on "someone coming - whether children are going to bathroom, whether someone is entering classrooms. If they see any problem they will report it to the school authorities," he said.
Areas like gym and swimming pools and other sports facilities should be confined to persons who are authorised and connected with the subject they are teaching, Reddi said.
"Teachers cannot come in the skating ring and loiter around. Only the skating instructor should be there," he said, as the measures came after nearly week-long protests with public anger mounting over the shocking incident.

The incident happened on July 2 at high-profile Vibgyor High School but the complaint was lodged by parents with police on July 14.
The skating instructor Mustafa was arrested a week later as the main accused and the school founder-chairman Rustom Kerawalla was arrested three days ago on charge of suppressing evidence among others.
The incident had led to change in senior top echelon of police with Reddi coming in as city police chief.