AMARAVATI: A former English teacher at a Tirupati-based private school — who was allegedly terminated for wearing western clothes to work — is now fighting a legal battle against the management to reclaim her job, honour and self-respect.

Beulah Rani Ravada (43) was appointed to Sree Vidyanikethan International School on September 4, 2017. The school is a part of a chain of educational institutions founded and chaired by popular Telugu actor-producer M Mohan Babu . Barely three months into her job, Ravada was issued a termination letter on December 7, 2017. It stated that her dressing — formal pants and full-sleeved shirt — was not “in line with the standards of the school”, and it “violated clauses 11 and 13 of the appointment letter”. None of the letters, copies of which are with TOI, mention a dress code.

The termination letter also mentions Ravada’s inability to complete the syllabus as a ground for her sacking. She, however, alleged that this was “forcibly done to justify the dismissal”. “I’ve been extremely hurt by this unceremonious termination. Before the written order arrived, I was summoned by the chairman who told me — before a group of men — that I shouldn’t wear western clothes because I’m a Telugu by birth,” Ravada said. “There is another teacher of a different nationality who dresses similarly. The management, however, seems to have no problem with that,” added Ravada, who is married to an Anglo-Indian man. When contacted, school principal Kieran Eugene Rigney — who had signed the termination letter — refused to comment.

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