JEDDAH, 16 January 2005 — An angry parent is alleging his son was injured after a wooden stick was broken across the fourth-grader’s back by an official at the Al-Manarat private boys school.

Education Administration officials are investigating the charges while school officials deny any wrongdoing. The boy’s father was outraged by this behavior and filed a police report against a deputy principal who denied going anywhere near the eight-year-old boy.

The police report includes a medical report from King Fahd Hospital, a copy of which Arab News obtained, stating that there are abrasions on the boy’s right shoulder and back and that he needs three days of treatment.

Police forwarded the report to the Education Administration, which investigates such cases rather than a prosecution committee or court which usually handles assault cases.

“My son is an excellent student, and I transferred him from his public school to this private school because of its reputation, but I didn’t expect this kind of treatment for the students,” the father told Arab News.

He said it was not the first time his son had been struck by school staff, and he was not the only student being beaten at the school.

“The first time he was hit by his math teacher with an open palm on his back because he was picking up a paper from the floor, and the teacher thought he was goofing around,” he said. “The blow left a bruise on my son’s back. I spoke to the principal, who simply questioned the teacher and asked him not to do it again.”

The second time his son was hit by a science teacher in the same manner on his back, and again the principal did not take any action. “It seems like this is the norm when disciplining students,” the father said.

This third time, a deputy principal, who the father alleges always carries a stick with him and verbally abuses the students, hit his son with the stick when he saw that the boy did not wash for prayer (wudu).

“I can’t believe this is how teachers and administrators treat students. I’m not surprised that these children would grow with mental problems and become abusive themselves,” the father said.

He withdrew his son’s file from the school before the police summoned the deputy to take his statements, though the boy was allowed to take his mid-term exams at the school, which ended two weeks ago, because he had already paid the fees.

“I’m waiting to see what happens with the police report but I want justice.” he said. “These innocent children don’t speak out or tell their parents because the teachers are authoritarian, and they’re afraid of them.”

Arab News contacted Turki Al-Ghamdi, the school’s principal, who denies any abuse ever occurs at his school. “In the seven years I have been here, this is the first such complaint ever made against the school, and this parent should have came to me first before going to the police or at least went to the school’s owner or the Education Administration, which investigates these cases,” he said.

“We have to discipline the children, but beating is completely forbidden because these are our children, and we are educators — not abusers. When the father complained to me about a teacher, I rebuked that teacher,” said Al-Ghamdi.

Where discipline ends and abuse begins is something the Education Administration will decide. “Beating students is absolutely forbidden in all schools public and private,” said Abdullah Al-Thaqafi, deputy director at the Education Administration. “At the start of each school year and in all our meetings with school administrators, we emphasize that any physical punishment is not allowed.”

And there are consequences.

“When we receive any complaint of this nature, we investigate the matter immediately and take appropriate action,” Al-Thaqafi told Arab News. Although such complaints are few, according to Al-Thaqafi, they take each complaint seriously, and the punishment given to the teacher or administrator depends on the injury ranging from a warning to a suspension.

In the meantime, the father is considering taking the matter to the National Society for Human Rights if necessary.

“We do look into such cases if there is a clear case of abuse because the system forbids any kind of physical punishment in schools, and it is the social worker’s duty in the school to report such incidents to the appropriate authorities,” said Khaled Nahhas of the NSHR.