Kerala's high literacy rate has apparently failed to sober its young men whose underlying yell of deviant sexual manifestation is notorious. In a shocker, students of Santhiniketanam Model Higher Secondary School (SMHS School) at Kollam put up posters of a well-known porn actor with captions threatening junior girl students with sexual assault in case of 'insubordination' to sexual overtures.
However, this is not a first-of-its-kind occurrence in Kerala. Since a private tuition centre posted vulgar posters on its Facebook account, many similar posters from around the state have started circulating online. Vivekananda Vocational Higher Secondary School (VVHS School) at Thamarakulam, Kollam, is another school with posters of explicit sexual assault threats on its campus. Onmanorama tried contacting the school on the landline number but no response was forthcoming. The police seemed oblivious to the matter.
“We have not received any complaints from the management of VVHS School nor are we aware of any such posters,” a police officer from Pallithottam, Kollam, said.
In Alappuzha, a mobile store has turned this atrocity into an opportunity to advertise. The name of the store appears on a poster featuring the same porn actor and similar threats. The poster has been put up next to the flex board of a private training institute.
“There have been other alleged incidents of the same nature but we have never received any complaints and no FIR has been registered," says a police official from Sooranad station in Kollam district.
The posters were taken down by the police in SMHS School. This school too did not respond to calls from Onmanorama and a staff member hung up when he was called on his personal phone.
The incident has sparked debates on social media but neither the institutions nor the students being threatened seem to be taking up the matter legally. As per the Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act 1998, any incident 'raising apprehension or fear or shame' is punishable by a sentence of up to two years and will also be liable to fine that may extend up to Rs 10,000.
The passive response of the schools and their failure to register a police case point to a deliberate hush-up attempt.
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