THE FATHER of an 11-year-old boy barged into his son’s classroom and beat up his teacher because the latter had told the child off for misbehaving.
The incident occurred at Larnaca’s Ayios Georgiou primary school yesterday morning while the teacher was in the middle of a class.
Apparently the parent was furious when he received a phone call from his son telling him that he’d been kicked off the school football team by his teacher as a punishment for his bad behaviour last Friday.
The father rolled up at the school in a rage to confront his son’s teacher. Despite the head teacher’s efforts to calm him down so that they could discuss the issue and reach a solution, the parent took matters into his own hands and forced his way into the classroom.
The attack took place in front of a room full of children, including the man’s son, who tried to pull his father off his teacher.
Following the incident, teachers and children went out into the school yard to demonstrate against violence in school grounds.
The school notified police but the teacher refused to give a statement.
“Because the teacher refused to file a complaint there is no case,” a Larnaca officer said.
The teacher apparently did not want to make a fuss so as not to cause trouble for the youngster.
Despite the teacher’s wish to keep the issue quiet, the Primary School Teachers’ Union (POED) said it would not stand for these displays of violence and condemned the incident.
The union is also trying to persuade the teacher to file a formal complaint and give a statement to police.
POED president Demetris Mikellides said it was high time the Education Ministry took steps to protect its teachers and students, including putting up fencing and offering support to the families of children with behavioural problems.
“Today we had an incident at a school whereby a parent, without getting permission from anywhere, came to the school and entered a classroom and essentially attacked a teacher,” he said.
Mikellides said this was not the first time such an incident had occurred at a primary school and it was time the Education Ministry did something about it.
“Parents have come into schools and used threatening language or verbally abused teachers. Today’s incident was extreme,” he said.
Secondary school teachers were also victims of the same abuse.
On March 6 an angry father verbally abused, threatened and undermined a Limassol gymnasium teacher in front of other teachers because his child did not get an ‘A’ grade.
The incident prompted an extraordinary teachers’ meeting and secondary school teachers’ union OELMEK said it was examining what steps to take.
Mikellides said: “For us it’s also of great importance the way in which children experience these outbursts of violence at schools and it is very sad when these exhibitions of violence are provoked by the parents themselves, in isolated instances of course, which truly harm public education.”
The primary school teacher said the ministry had an obligation to investigate children with behavioural problems.
“If there is violence in the family, then children will display violence. It is up to the ministry to look into the child’s family history and with social workers to offer that child and its family support. As teachers we can’t go and investigate. We don’t have the right to do something like that,” he said.
Mikellides said that the ministry was guilty of doing nothing and letting things get out of control.
“If, by telling a child off, this is the reaction to expect then we might as well close all schools. The boy was told that he had to ask for permission to use footballs and that he couldn’t just kick them about. Is this a reason to go and hit a teacher?
“The schools can’t become jungles. What does society want from us? It’s all out of control. It’s a huge social problem.”
The frustrated teacher said the union did not want to single out the particular school, which was why it was holding a general meeting on Thursday to address the issue in its wider framework.
“Next week we will announce what measures we are going to take, and there will be measures… We might even go on strike. Schools – all nursery and primary schools – could close for a day or two or three. Today the problem was in Larnaca, tomorrow it will be in Paphos or Limassol. This affects us all,” said Mikellides.
Yesterday’s incident was also condemned by the Cyprus Primary School Parents and Guardians Associations’ Federation.
The Federation said it would examine the incident and fully supported teachers in their difficult role of educating today’s children.
“Such actions in an age when everyone involved in education is fighting to stamp out violence and teenage delinquency in schools are condemnable and must for no reason be carried, especially in front of the children themselves,” it said.
