It’s shocking to hear that the authorities at Sree Narayana College at Chempazhanthy, Thiruvananthapuram took strict action against five teachers because they supported sexual harassment survivors.
Manu Remakant, Lakshmi AJ, Remya CR, Lekha NB and Sangeeta Hariharan are the five teachers who have either been transferred or suspended.
The case came to light when six women students of SN college filed a sexual harassment complaint against an assistant professor of the Department of Political Science, T Abhilash. The students had met with Governor Ariff Mohammed Khan in August to complain about the harassment and lewd messages that T Abilash sent to his students. There was no strict action taken against the professor, allegedly.
The five teachers who came forward to support the sexual harassment survivors were given transfer notifications and suspension orders. Manu Remakant, Remya, and Sangeetha was transferred to SN College Cherthala, Nagyarkulangara, and Kollam respectively. Lekha and Lakshmi were suspended as they couldn’t be transferred. It is alleged that the teachers were not given sufficient time to respond to the college’s action as mentioned in the 10-day revert policy. In fact, they were given the memo beyond the stipulated period, giving them no chance to address it.
In conversation with a source, The News Minute shared, “The reasons cited for action in the memo for all except one are also strange – that the teachers had liked a Facebook post of another colleague who put a post questioning why can’t women drink if men can. The teachers liked it because of the feminist viewpoint but it has been construed to say that those who liked it are allegedly promoting alcoholism.”
The principal of SN College Anilkumar stated that he had no part in the decision taken by the board and refused to comment further.
