ENGLISH School Headmaster Stuart Haggert yesterday sought to play down claims of referendum tension at the Nicosia private school, saying recent reports were grossly exaggerated.
“It is true that one boy has been the victim of cruel harassment. His name was written on one of the walls with threatening comments,” Haggert said yesterday. However, he also told the Cyprus Mail that the boy did not feel he was in real danger.
“I have just seen the pupil in question and he has told me that he does not feel the threat is genuine or something too serious. Of course it is not a nice thing and he is upset,” said Haggert. “I am not diminishing the importance of what has happened but I do suspect it has been blown out of proportion.”
The school’s headmaster feels the school has been the target of malicious exaggeration in the lead up to the referenda. “We have been accused of our students being out of control and acting like hooligans, ever since the vicious and racist graffiti that defaced our walls,” said Haggert.
The headmaster pointed out his school had been one of the few whose students had not abandoned their desks and flocked to the streets to take part in demonstrations against the Annan plan.
“All pupils have remained in their classrooms as instructed. They listened to their teachers and to me, which is why I am annoyed at the suggestions that there was anarchy here,” stressed Haggert, praising his pupils’ maturity. “They have been extremely good by not getting up and leaving school this week.”
However, Haggert did admit that there have been some heated debates among pupils. “They have had debates about the Annan plan amongst themselves, between both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ supporters.” Yet there has been no discussion of the plan in classrooms and no cases of teachers influencing pupils.
The headmaster added all the graffiti had been painted over.
“People have been coming to the school at night and defacing our walls with graffiti, both pro and anti a solution. However, our evidence has shown that the graffiti was done by outsiders and not English School pupils,” he said.
Haggert added he did not expect any more campaigners to use the English School walls as their canvas to advertise their beliefs. “We have appointed guards outside the school and hope this will put an end to us being the victims of graffiti.”
Meanwhile, the Headmaster of the Heritage School in Limassol, Gary Butcher, yesterday phoned the Cyprus Mail to clarify that they had had no incidents involving any of their pupils.
“We are an International School and therefore we would never dream of allowing our students to take part in these demonstrations, either for or against the plan and they have not expressed any desire to do so,” said Butcher.
