Teacher Aquitted After Forcing a Child to Write "I Am Retarded" One-Hundred Times
She was acquitted.
The identity of the teacher has been withheld for privacy reasons. However, this female teacher forced the 12-year-old boy to write the sentences after the student stood in the way of a fellow pupil, blocking the pupil's way of the toilet, while calling him "girly" and "gay".
The student's parents requested 25,000 euros, or $33,580, in damages. A public prosecutor requested a 2-month stay in prison for the teacher. Regardless, a court source said the court cleared the teacher. In fact, gay rights groups wanted the charges of abuse to be dropped.
The teacher feels her punishment for the boy had been nothing but appropriate, mostly because of a highly publicized case of a young suicide of an Italian student who had been taunted in school because of his homosexuality.
The teacher said, "I never intended to humiliate the boy," after being cleared, to a group of journalists.
In Italian, the words, "Io sono deficiente", which were the the words the teacher forced the student to write, translate into "I am deficient". However, the word "deficient" is commonly used a derogatory term meaning "mentally retarded" or "moron".
The teacher said, "I explained, discussing with him and his classmates, that deficient means 'lacking'. He was 'lacking' sensitivity for one of his classmates."
According to Pravada, in 2005 a 14-year-old student in Russia went to a train station and committed suicide by laying his head on the tracks when he was sure a train was coming. In the boy's pocket was a note stating the his teacher is responsible for his suicide. The teacher harassed him and ostracized him by forcing him to clean floors, after being unable to bring in an equivalent of $10 USD to the teacher in an effort to make classroom repairs.
Although the case of harassment in Italy was not as extreme, the harassment was put to an end before anything extreme could take form.
If you feel your child is being harassed by his/her teacher, contact the school your child attends immediately. In addition, contacting one of the following numbers may prove to be beneficial, as well:
Sexual Assault
1-800-974-3359
Sexual Harassment
1-800-974-3359
GLBT Harassment
206.350-HATE (Hate-Crime National Hotline)
Racial or Ethnic Harassment
206.350-HATE (Hate-Crime National Hotline)
Published by Brian
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- The student's parents requested 25,000 euros, or $33,580, in damages.
5 Comments
Post a CommentTis a shame that the identity of this teacher wasn't revealed. There are better ways to punish individuals and surely this woman could have been a little more creative in order to get her point across. Homophobia is a terrible thing, but then so are ignorant teachers. Both the teacher and the offending student should be ousted from the school.
Our kids spend most of their day time in the school. It is very much important to look into any matter that affect our kids mentally.
I liked the resources. Nice.
This was an excellent story and very upsetting at the same time.
thank you for providing some important resources at the end of your article. nice work!