Indian students punished for rude Facebook messages about teacher

Oct 8, 2010, 13:30 GMT

New Delhi - A school in northern India has suspended 16 students for posting rude comments about a woman teacher on the social networking site Facebook, media reports said Friday.

Angry with his maths teacher for giving him low grades, a student uploaded her photograph and posted abusive remarks, the PTI news agency reported.

Fifteen of his classmates who chipped in with their comments were also suspended.

Facebook is an hugely popular website in India with an estimated 15 million users.

The students including seven girls were suspended from school for three months Thursday for the 'rude and abusive' remarks, school director HS Mamik said.

Seventeen-year old Asaf Pervez initiated the online thread posting images of his test scores.

A teacher from the school who also had an account on the website, noticed the comments and reported the matter to the school management.

'This kind of behaviour on a public platform is unacceptable,' Mamik was quoted by the IANS news agency as saying. 'We had to take action to ensure that the right message goes to the students.'

Parents of the suspended students agreed with the action of the school management but asked them to show leniency.

'It was a mistake the students did. We have urged the school authorities to review the decision as suspending them for three months in the final year of school is too harsh,' the mother of a suspended student said.

The school management said it would be meeting on October 18 to consider the request from the parents for reviewing the suspension.

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