Teachers, students pay tearful homage to slain teacher

CHENNAI: Teachers and students of St Mary’s Anglo- Indian Higher Secondary School o Monday paid a tearful homage to its teacher R Uma Maheswari (40), who was stabbed to death inside the classroom by her student on February nine. The management of the school, which reopened after it was closed following the murder, organised a condolence meeting to pay homage to the slain teacher, who had been teaching Hindi and Mathematics for close to a decade in the school, located at Armenian street in Parry’s corner. School Principal C P Mathew presided over the meeting, which was attended among others by Chennai Chief Education Offi cer Kuppusamy, Parents-Teachers Association President Kishore, Ravishankar, husband of the deceased teacher and her two daughters Sangeetha and Janani. After the condolence meeting, the Management organised a counseling session for the teachers before declaring a holiday for the school. Normal classes would resume after a counseling session for the students tomorrow to be organised by the school management. More than 1500 students observed two minutes silence as a mark of respect to the late teacher and paid fl oral tributes to the portrait of Maheswari, kept at the Auditorium. The student’s was moved to tears as they lined up to pay homage to the teacher, offering fl oral tributes. Many broke down when the two daughters of the teacher also turned up to pay their respects. Paying glowing tributes, Kuppusamy said the school had lost a very good teacher and her death was an irreparable loss to the fi eld of education. Calling upon the students to take a pledge to emerge as best students, the Education offi cer said this would alone be the fi tting tribute to the late Teacher. Kishore said parents also indirectly become privy to such crimes as they do not spend time with their wards. Besides taking time to check the performance of their children, parents should also go through the remarks made by the teachers and infuse confi dence into their wards to come out of their stress. The Auditorium was plunged into grief, when Sangeetha, the elder daughter of Uma Maheswari, rose to address the students and explained as to how best her mother loved the students. ‘My mother will often say you are all her children. She spends six days in a week with you, while sparing just one day for us. She loved you all more than us,’ Sangeetha said. Advising students not to get upset and angry when teachers reprimand them for their mistakes, she said the students should realise that was only for their good. ‘As a student, I advise you to love your teachers and never develop hatred when the teachers reprimand you,’ she said. The school management also announced that a sum of Rs 5 Lakh has been deposited for the educational expenses of the two daughters of Uma Maheswari. Sangeetha is studying Plus Two, while Janani is studying seventh standard.