AL-JOUF: A teacher in a middle school in Sakaka in the northern province of Al-Jouf allegedly broke the right arm of a first grade student yesterday. The boy was supposedly talking to another boy in the classroom.
Ashraf Al-Ruwaily was taken to hospital and an X-ray showed that his arm had been fractured. A doctor said that it would take three weeks before the boy could return to school.
According to a hospital source, this is the 10th case of children brought there with injuries resulting from excessive disciplining in schools this year.
Al-Ruwaily described to Arab News how he felt when the teacher began to beat him. “I was trying to borrow a pen from my friend who was sitting behind me when I felt a heavy stick fall on my right elbow with a shooting pain,” the boy said.
Al-Ruwaily’s parents have called on the education authorities to look into the matter and take stringent measures to stop savage attacks on innocent children for flimsy reasons.
“The teacher should have made a report to the school principal if the student was misbehaving. Beating children with a stick is a violation of school regulations,” Ahmad Al-Shammari, the school’s principal, told Arab News. He added that the teacher involved was new and so did not know the right method of handling unruly students. The matter will be reported to the education administration in Al-Jouf, he said.
The principal also urged teachers to behave in a gentle manner with students and warned them against corporal punishment under any circumstances.
