An English teacher from Alba county who grabbed a student by the neck, the images being filmed, was found guilty of abusive behavior and sentenced to pay a criminal fine of 6000 lei. The boy’s mother did not raise civil claims in the criminal case opened following the act of violence. The teacher continues to teach.
A teacher from the Secondary School in Hopârta was sentenced by the Aiud Court to a criminal fine of 6,000 lei for abusive behavior, after grabbing a 14-year-old student by the neck during class, writes ziarulunirea.ro, quoted by News.ro.
The Court’s sentence is not final, it can be appealed within 10 days of communication. The teaching staff was referred to justice following an incident that occurred in the morning of December 12, 2024, around 8:45 a.m.
“According to the file, the student asked a colleague to put an earring on him, and the teacher reacted by throwing the boy’s bag of chips from the bench. Surveillance camera images show how the teacher grabs the student by the neck in the classroom, then takes him out into the hallway, takes him by the collar and pushes him against the wall, where he holds him for a few seconds. The teacher (ML), aged 64, admitted the act and asked to be tried in the simplified procedure of the admission of guilt, which reduced the punishment limits by a fourth. The prosecutors sent him to court for abusive behavior in an aggravated form, because the victim was a minor, he was in his care, and the act happened in public”, write the journalists from Ziarul Unirea.
“During the hearing, the injured person showed that after asking his colleague to put the earring in his ear, the English teacher looked at them and said, ‘Do you want me to pull the earring out of your ear?’ the injured person replied, “Come on, teacher!”. In this context, the teacher threw the bag of chips down from the bench, the injured person asking him to pay for the chips. Further, the defendant grabbed him by the neck with both hands, then grabbed the student by the hand and took him out of the classroom saying “Let’s go to the principal, let’s call the police”. Once in the school hall, the defendant stuck the student to a radiator and then told him to enter the classroom. As a result, the injured person suffered injuries, excoriations and bruises that required healing 1-2 days medical care”, reads the indictment of the prosecutors, quoted by local journalists.
The judge refused to waive the punishment or postpone it, considering that the physical abuse of a 14-year-old student is an attitude that “cannot be tolerated” by a teacher.
“Even if the injured person had an impertinent and inappropriate behavior in the given context, making it difficult for the English class to take place, the defendant had other means at hand to restore order, the use of physical and verbal violence not being allowed for a teacher, who must take care of the students while they are at school and protect them, under no circumstances to assault them,” the court’s decision, cited by ziarulunirea.ro.
The judge took into account the recognition of the act and the regret shown by the teacher, the reduced number of days of medical care, the fact that the incident was isolated in a long teaching career and the positive characterizations from colleagues. The teacher apologized to the student and his mother, and the woman declared that she had no more claims. The boy continues to take English lessons with the same teacher, and the family has not asked for civil compensation.
