A video is being circulated on social media as seen in the screenshot below.
The text claims that the man who is brutally thrashing the children in the video is a teacher at RM VM School at Valsad in Gujarat. It has a request for its readers to share the video and make it viral as stated in the message, “If a video goes viral it makes a lot of difference and instant action is taken”.
Message: “आप के जितने भी ग्रुप हैं एक भी छूटने नही चाहिए, ये वीडियो सबको भेजिए ये वलसाड के RM& VM School का टीचर है इसको इतना शेयर करो की ये टीचर और स्कूल दोनों बंद हो जाए । वीडियो वायरल होने से काफी फ़र्क पड़ता है ओर कार्यवाही होती है जिसे दया न आये वो अपना मुंह (टाइपिंग) बंद रखे । (You shouldn’t miss a single group, send this video to everyone, He is a teacher at Valsad’s RM VM School. So, share this so that both the teacher and school get shut down. If a video goes viral it makes a lot of difference and instant action is taken, those who don’t sympathise can keep their mouth shut (typing).)
The video shared on Facebook and Twitter has attributed the horrific images to a school in Valsad named RM & VM Desai Vidhyadham.
The Video Belongs To An Orphanage In Egypt
Alt News used Invid to a do a reverse image search on Google of the key frames in the video and found a Daily Mail article published on 5 August, 2014, titled, “Wife films secret footage of orphanage manager beating children with a stick and kicking them until they burst into tears in case that has shocked Egypt“.
The article states, “The video shows Osama Mohamed Othman hitting the children before kicking them as they run away, screaming in pain. State-run Al-Ahram newspaper said Othman’s estranged wife filmed the video two months ago at Dar Mecca Al-Mokarama Orphanage in Giza”.
It may be noted that the video belongs to an orphanage in Egypt and not RM & VM Desai Vidyadham School of Valsad as claimed on social media.
Moreover, Alt News found a statement on the homepage of RM & VM Desai Vidyadham’s website which clarified, “There are a number of videos being uploaded under the RM & VM School name. These videos are 100% spurious and have been collected from different incidents which are unrelated to the school. Below is a video from ABP News that proves the illegitimacy of these videos.”
As said in the statement, many videos have been shared on Facebook and Twitter with the same claim about a teacher at RM & VM School using the text “RM & VM School“.
Misinformation degrading the reputation of a political party, public figure or historical figure has been a regular trend on social media. But this time, a school’s reputation has been besmirched with a barrage of videos depicting violence against children. Despite the video having been debunked several times, it continues to be shared extensively on social media.
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