Sensitivity towards the mute - a strength or a weakness
This incident happened a few years back when my daughter was a student in a popular Co- education school in our town in Kerala.
One afternoon, while it was nearly lunch time, my daughter heard some deep wailing noises, which she was quick to identify was coming from a young dog.. To her absolute shock and dismay, she soon realised that it was coming from within her school.. Incidentally, a young dog had accidentally ventured into the school compound and a care taker woman was beating it mercilessly in her attempt to drive the dog away.. My daughter, the animal lover that she is could not bear this sight unravelling right in front of her eyes and she started yelling and crying herself in the midst of her class and pleaded with her class teacher permission to go and set right the situation.. Meanwhile the little dog in question had taken some more severe beatings and supposedly fled for its remaining life..
My daughter with some friends in tow marched to the Principal( a Christian Father) and with tears still streaming down her face narrated the cruelty meted out to the stray by the school care taker, hoping that a little punishment or atleast a harsh word of caution be given to the woman in question.
But what left my daughter shattered for many days afterwards was that the Principal not only did anything in the issue, but asked her if all her tears was just for a stray dog and that if she was a member of Maneka Gandhi's group..
Leave alone the action and insensitivity of the lady care taker who was the perpetrator, which gave my child so much grief, but the inaction and apathy of the protector, in this case the Principal, definitely did
her more damage. This incident is definitely one of her bitter experiences in school life.
