By Jean Christou
THE EDUCATION Ministry is thinking of hiring 24-hour security guards for schools following a spate of violent attacks on teachers by pupils.
An incident on Thursday, in which a teacher was injured, prompted his colleagues at Limassol’s Ayios Ioannis Lyceum to stage a two-hour work stoppage yesterday.
It was the third serious attack since the school year began two months ago.
Incidents of schools being targeted by arsonists are also on the rise.
Education Minister Ouranios Ioannides yesterday tried to play down talk of a rising trend of violence, saying the incidents were all different.
But the minister admitted that there was sufficient cause for concern to warrant discussion on security at schools.
“We don’t want this sort of thing to go on indefinitely in Cypriot schools,” Ioannides said. “This is why we are examining the possibility (of hiring guards) at the moment”.
However, he said it was the ministry’s view that discipline at schools was the responsibility of teachers.
“Punishment should be applied by teachers,” he said, adding that he did not believe the secondary school teachers union Oelmek would appreciate having some of its members’ powers taken over by the ministry. “If the penalty is not enough to solve today’s problems, then we are ready to act,” Ioannides said.
Thursday’s incident broke out when a teacher reported an 18-year old pupil to the school’s deputy head.
When the pupil learned he had been reported, he allegedly barged into the staff room and attacked the teacher.
A second teacher, Demetris Demetriades, stepped in to help his colleague, and was also allegedly attacked by the student, who hit him with a chair and punched him. Demetriades sustained light injuries.
It was reported yesterday that the pupil involved had already been expelled from several other schools.
He was questioned by police later on Thursday and was expected to be charged and released yesterday in connection with the assault.
Teachers, outraged by the incident, staged their protest strike between 9am and 11am yesterday morning.
Oelmek president Andreas Stavrou, who went to Limassol yesterday, condemned what had happened and blamed the Education Ministry.
He said the union had asked the Minister to take measures to prevent violence in schools, which he said was becoming an everyday occurrence.
Stavrou said Oelmek decided a month ago that any school where there were violent incidents would stage a two-hour strike like the one held yesterday. If incidents of violence persisted, measures would be extended to schools across the country.
“The teachers have no other choice because of the indifference shown by the relevant authorities,” Stavrou said. “We cannot stand by and watch the violence in society permeate our schools. Schools are supposed to prepare people for a better life.”
Injured teacher Demetriades said yesterday that it had been his duty to protect a fellow teac”I tried to hold the student back and he attacked me and other teachers,” he said.
“Because I’m a parent too I called the parents’ association to consider what is happening and to look at the issue of their children’s safety, which is at the mercy of one or two students who are at school only to pass the time and have no interest in lessons, only in terrorising fellow students and disrupting teachers.”
Demetriades said more and more teachers were choosing not to report bad behaviour for fear of reprisals.
