Thessaloniki students hold protest in support of teen who bullied teacher
Students at a vocational training school in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, were staging a sit-in on Tuesday to protest the possibility of criminal charges being brought against a fellow pupil in the wake of the release of a video showing him verbally assaulting a teacher.
The cellphone video leaked on social media last week shows a teenage boy screaming at a teacher and threatening violence unless she cleared his record of an absence from class at a vocational high school (EPAL) in Kordelio, northeast of the city center. The incident reportedly took place in January 2019 and the student was punished with a one-day suspension.
According to Skai, the students protesting the possibility of legal action being taken against the teenager say that he has anger-management issues and should not be held accountable for his behavior.
Their decision to hold the sit-in comes in reaction to a tweet by Education Minister Niki Kerameus on Sunday saying that the “required measures” will be taken in response to the incident shown on the video.
However, the regional governor of Central Macedonia responsible for education, Alexandros Koptsis, ruled out the possibility of criminal charges, saying that the unnamed student has already been punished in accordance with school regulations.
