A Missing Girl……..

A couple of days back, it was at about 9.00 pm, when I got a telephonic call from a teacher of my school that a girl from Class IX had not reached her home after school hours. My school closes at 1.40 pm. I was on an official tour to some schools of Himachal Pradesh and returned home.

Where had she gone? What might have happened to her? Such questions started haunting me. I got disturbed. I got the telephone of her parents and spoke to them. They were also ostensibly perturbed. My phone was picked by a lady who said that she was an army officer. I inquired about the whereabouts of the girl. She told me that an FIR had been lodged in local police station and they were trying to talk to their relatives and friends. But there was no clue. This girl is a distant relative of this army officer who along with her mother stays with her.

Throughout night there was no clue.  Next day one of my teachers sent me an SMS that she has been found  in the house of a student of class X with whom she was seen last yesterday. The parents of the girl were also informed who immediately rushed there to bring her home.

Next day she was sitting in her class as usual. I called her to my office along with her parents. Her mother along with that lady army officer reported in my office. I asked them where she had gone. I was told  that after attending the school she boarded a local bus and reached Chandigarh railway station from where she boarded a train which was bound for Daulatpur Chowk in Una Himachal Pradesh. This happens to be the last station on that route. She reached here at 6.33pm. On reaching here she asked a co passenger for a mobile as she wanted to send some message to her friends on Instagram. Co- passenger had no phone. She said that her brother was coming to take her and he would have a phone. She would then provide her a phone. That so happened. She sent a message to one of her friends on Instagram. She was unable to contact her friends.Then one by one all passengers left the station. It was growing darker and darker.  She was left all alone. She was left with no other alternative than to spend night lonely in one of the compartments of that train. And this is what she did.

Next morning was  Sunday. The train chugged off  in the morning from Daulatpur to Chandigarh. She had Rs 400/-. On her way back she had eaten a cake and drunk a cold drink. At about 11.00 hrs. she reached Chandigarh. She got down and requested a person for the mobile who did not pay any heed to her request. Then again she requested some other lady for a phone who was kind enough to lend her phone. From there she contacted one of her friends of class X with whom she was seen last near the bus stop by some students of the school yesterday. This phone was picked up by the father of her boy friend   and he asked her where she was. She told him the location which was very close to their home. He asked her to stand wherever she was and said that he would soon come to pick her up. He took her to their house. Thus she was recovered. Her parents were informed and they came to pick her up. Had her train moved towards Delhi-the picture of this story would have been different. Himachal Pradesh is comparatively low violence prone area.

I asked her the reason of her running away. She said that her class teacher had threatened her to get her Transfer Certificate issued from school as she was behind the fight which had taken place outside the school  premises  a day back in which one of her class fellows was badly beaten by some of her boyfriends because he was frequently following her after school hours up to her house. He was also coming to her home on the pretexts of getting note books/books. He had also proposed her friendship through a letter.  She did not like this.  This was also not liked by some other boys of the school who were already her friends. Rivalry became the bone of contention.

Had there been no fight amongst the boys outside the school two days ago and had  mother of that boy, who was beaten, not come to school next day –the situation would have been different. Had the teacher not threatened her with the consequence of issuance of her Transfer Certificate from the school-most probably she would not have fled away.

Whenever teachers confront with such indiscipline-they normally try to act like investigating police officers. Issuing such threats to students which might result into taking extreme steps by them might put the concerned teacher into a very difficult situation. The teacher should have brought the issue either to the notice of school Counsellor or Principal. They would have handled the situation differently. 

Now imagine, had this student taken some extreme step and had she written the name of the teacher on a paper chit mentioning the behavior of the teacher responsible for her extreme action and had the police got that chit written by such student-the life of the teacher would have been reduced to hell by now.

There is growing indiscipline in the school going boys and girls. They spend a lot of time on social media sites and develop relations with unknown people. They chat for hours together with their class fellows, school friends and with unknown people. And sometimes parents do not even smell about the involvement of their children on social media sites. They get exposed to porn sites. Parents feel that their children are doing some home assignments on internet but in return most of them betray the trust of their parents. And this girl was like such students. Her Class teacher had also retrieved a Diary from her in which she had written some of her un-forgetful experiences. She was also involved with outside boys and I do not have the courage the pen down those things for public discourse.

Parents are advised to keep a close watch on their children especially on their usage of internet. The parents who do not know how to use mobile phones or those who blindly feel that their children will always use them for constructive purposes are usually deceived by their children. Please keep a check.

Teachers need to act professionally. Whenever they confront some indiscipline-they should not create a situation in which they fall prey to their own actions. They need to record it on paper and submit that to the Counsellor of the school. The Counsellor, in turn, should also involve teachers ,parents and Principal in finding a viable solution. Any mishandled situation may create unexpected problems for teachers and school.