ETC faculty conducts anger management, sex education classes for special children

Vashi: An altercation between a hearing impaired Std 8 student of NMMC' s Education Training and Centre for Persons with Different Ability (ETC) and a lady bus attendant that took place a month ago has led the centre management to start sex education classes for children over 10 years. The centre has around 350 students with varying disabilities and health conditions.
Psychologists at the centre are currently training students to control their emotions and conduct themselves properly in public. "The spat acted as a catalyst to implement our long-pending plan of conducting sex education classes. Unlike normal students, differently abled children are not able to control their anger or emotions," said centre director Varsha Bhagat.
The boy's subsequent errant ways had spurred the centre to take strict action, claim the faculty. The student in question refused to apologise and received a 'light' smack from the class teacher. "He was admonished for his wayward behaviour in a moving bus and the lady attendant had confiscated his ID. Angered, he had snatched and threw away her purse. Eventually, teachers accompanying the students had to intervene. An inquiry was held on August 5 in the presence of the student's parents, class teacher, principal and social workers," said a teacher from the centre.
The incident has since then spiraled into a controversy with an anonymous letter that reportedly made its way to the NMMC, standing committee meeting and was widely reported by the media. The letter had notified the civic commissioner about hearing impaired students from the centre being subjected to corporal punishment.
Contrary to media reports, the student's parent came to the rescue of the centre. "Aren't teachers allowed to reprimand students when they disobey? Such baseless complaints are an attempt to bring disrepute to this centre. These special educators are doing an excellent job in handling the children. Thanks to their effort, my second child has been admitted to a regular school," said the father of the student involved in the spat. When contacted, the NMMC commissioner Abasaheb Jarhad, on Wednesday, denied receipt of any such letter.
Even the principal of hearing impaired division, Smitha Cholkar denied the contents of the letter and expressed her surprise at the allegation. "The incident was brought to the notice of the class teacher during the assembly period. Since the boy chose not apologize, the teacher merely smacked him on the shoulder to make him realise his mistake. No one has bothered to ascertain the fact by contacting me," she said.