by zan » Sat Dec 17, 2005 3:55 pm
He must be one of the class of 2005. I would like to see the year book.
When will it end?
By Jacqueline Theodoulou
The media might stand accused of hype but the sheer proportion of delinquency incidents in schools begs attention
THE PAPHOS municipality yesterday undertook the initiative of organising a conference to discuss the matter of underage antisocial behaviour. Education Ministry representatives, organised parents’ unions, teachers and police were all in attendance.
The action arrived in the face of another incident of vandalism in an Aglandjia gymnasium overnight, where unknown culprits broke into the grounds, raided the caretaker’s store room and laid the school yard to waste.
The school’s principal told police that the vandals caused extensive damages of around £200 to the teachers’ offices, cut up plants and strew the remains everywhere, broke flower pots and also littered the school grounds with chalk, waste bags and cleaning equipment which they stole from the storage room.
Scenes of disaster greeted students yesterday morning with flags, rubbish and school supplies thrown all around the school. Police at the scene saying nothing was stolen.
In Paphos, the think tank’s primary conclusion remained the fact that society in general is to blame for recent pupils’ actions.
Limassol parents’ union president Andreas Satchiaris said that all parents’ unions have been asked to consider the possibility of postponing school trips until discussions have concluded.
“We are all trying to lay low and wait to see how we can hold discussions so that we can see how to proceed on the matter of school trips.
“We will try to take measures, if and when we can as unions, through the schools. In that way all these situations that arise at school trips can be avoided. Everything isn’t black and we need to realise this.
“There are some incredible youths and there are many great ones. We should centre our efforts on the few pupils that are causing problems and see what it is that makes them act in such a way.”
AKEL took matters to a political level yesterday by accusing DISY of being partially to blame for the incidents.
The coalition party’s representative Andros Kyprianou said that recent violent incidents among students are a result of the previous government’s policies.
Most recent instances of antisocial behaviour in schools:
l Pupils allegedly steal teacher’s mobile phone and distribute a naked photograph of her throughout the school. Teachers and authorities were unable to do anything about it.
l Over a hundred Limassol pupils go to Paphos for a three-day, unsupervised school trip. Mayhem ensues as the pupils, aged between 15 and 17, clashed with local youths. Shops, cars, hotel rooms and public property were damaged. A 16-year-old boy from Paphos was hospitalised and a 17-year-old boy from Limassol arrested and charged.
l Two boys at the Limassol Technical School beat their teacher because he told one of them off for kissing a girl on the cheek.
l In Ayios Dhometios a student lies to the police by saying that his teacher had hit him. The same student, along with a friend, also altered and lied about their grade.
l In Xilotymbou, a number of students broke into their high school looking for their grades.
l A British girl attending a gymnasium in Paphos accuses male pupils of sexually harassing her. “They unbuttoned my shirt and kept trying to touch me”. The school’s acting principal said that she had been provoking the boys and was “asking for it”. The mother of one of the accuser’s friends attacks one of the boys believed to be part of the gang. The woman now faces a possible court case as the boy’s parents are suing her for injuring and psychologically harming their son.
l At the same school, a 12-year-old boy gropes his female teacher in the schoolyard. His parents are now suing the teacher, headmistress and acting principal for threatening to expel their son and causing psychological harm.
