A preliminary investigation has been ordered by the Thessaloniki appellate prosecutor’s office regarding the case of a teacher who died last Saturday after suffering a massive stroke amid what her friends and colleagues claim was a sustained campaign of vicious bullying in the classroom by several of her pupils.
The press reports citing the alleged abuse have raised the issue of harassment of educators at the hands of usually teenage pupils to the national limelight, generating heightened media and social media attention.
The ill-fated teacher, who taught English at a Thessaloniki-area public school, had complained of repeated taunting, threats and bullying by pupils in her class, even becoming the target of objects thrown at her. She had also requested a police presence at the school.
Specifically, the order was given by the head of the Thessaloniki Court of Appeal Prosecutor’s Office, following a cascade of media reports claiming that the teacher had desperately requested an immediate intervention by relevant school authorities and services.
The teacher had been referred to a health committee, a referral which according to a lawyer representing her family, was based on complaints from certain pupils at the school claiming that she was “not behaving appropriately”, without a prior disciplinary investigation.
In a three-page report left behind the now deceased teacher, she listed alleged dates and times, including one incident where she was hit in the battle by a full plastic bottle of water and a textbook, and another where a paper container with chocolate milk was thrown at her.
Friends and colleagues also spoke up after her untimely death – she was in her 50s – as quoted by local and national media.
‘They mocked her by making animal noises’
“There are testimonies that in one particular class…they threw bottles of water at her and containers of chocolate milk. They blocked the door with desks so she could not leave the classroom. They mocked her by making animal noises. Not all the children—six or seven boys, always,” according to the family’s lawyer, Charalampos Apostolidis, speaking to Star TV.
