The teacher, who is said to be responsible for handling disciplinary matters at the school, decided to cross all limits after a student of Class 11 complained that money which had been kept in her bag for paying school fees was missing and that she suspected a classmate of having stolen it.

Soon afterwards, some of the teachers segregated the students and checked their bags and pockets. Unable to find the missing money, some of the male students and female students were taken to the toilets where they were checked in greater detail”, with male students even being asked to strip to their underwear.

With no success in recovering the missing money, the female teacher then forced the ‘alleged suspect’ to completely strip off all her clothes despite the student’s objections. All this while, nobody from the school administration bothered to call the parents of the concerned student to the school and try and resolve the issue in a civilised manner.

While the school principal and the vice-principal refused to answer repeated calls over two days by Muscat Daily, a member of the school’s board of directors confirmed that the incident had indeed taken place. The official said that he did not condone the incident and said that he had reported the matter to the relevant ministry as this was a ‘clear case of child rights abuse’. He expressed hope that the concerned legal authorities in the country would take strict action against the teacher, as he was not sure anything much would be done given what he claimed were vested interests that were acting to cover up the whole issue.”