Daily Times

The district commissioner on Wednesday suspended the registration of a private school in Lahore’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) where the bullying of a girl took place.

Lahore’s District Commissioner Mohammad Ali held the proceedings of the case on Wednesday. The registration of the educational institution will remain suspended till the next hearing of the case. The incident of bullying and manhandling of a girl by her female class fellows at a private school surfaced last week when the video of the incident went viral. A case was filed against four girls for allegedly torturing their fellow student. DC Mohammad Ali decided on suspending the school’s registration after hearing the arguments from parties in the case over District Education Authority’s (DEA) recommendations stated in its inquiry report. The school’s owner and principal also attended the proceedings.

The DC suspended the school’s registration and directed the authority’s chief executive officer to look after the school’s affairs till the suspension of registration.

Meanwhile, the school administration and parents of the students involved in the matter, were directed to submit a reply in response for the inquiry report on the next hearing. The DEA CEO was also directed to issue notices to the parents in this regard. The DEA submitted its inquiry report to the Lahore DC on Tuesday. The inquiry was conducted by Lahore Elementary School Education’s female district officer, deputy district officer, Cantt and deputy district officer, Model Town. As per the report, the incident took place outside the cafeteria of the school in which four female students “tortured their class fellow”.

The report stated that the students involved in the matter were “friends” and the issue was created over sharing the pictures of a “student party outside the school” with parents. It further stated the school in question lacks discipline and that there are no security cameras installed at the entrance of the cafeteria. The inquiry officials had recommended slapping a Rs600,000 penalty to the school or suspending the school’s registration.