Schoolboy faints after being slapped by teacher

A fifth-grade student has suffered brain concussion and is facing amnesia after getting a slap from his teacher.

This is how the behavior of Iryna Palujanskaja, the mathematics teacher at a secondary school in Ruzany, ended up with according to the parent of Nikifar Stajanavic. The teacher has already been fired from her job. Besides, she is to face administrative prosecution.

The school’s deputy principle in charge of education and discipline, Nina Mihalcuk, witnessed the incident. While she disproves the behavior of a fellow teacher, the slap could not bring such damage, she says.

“It happened during the break. The boy’s classmates took his sports costume and started throwing it around the classroom. He got angry and started shouting, throwing books and eventually broke a flower vase. The students ran out of the classroom and complained to their teacher.

She shouted at him. In respond, he used curses to shout back at her. She then pushed him with her hand. He lost his balance and hit his head at the wall, getting a bruise,” Nina Mihalcuk said.

On the next day, the boy’s parents came to the school, demanding the resignation of the teacher under an article in the administrative code. But when they learned that she resigned allegedly after having peacefully resolved the matter, the boy’s mother, Anzela Stajanavic filed a complaint with the local district court.

“The boy will now have to remain under supervision of a neurologist. He has been prescribed medicines that he will have to be taking for three months. Because of the shock and brain concussion, the boy lost his memory. I want this teacher to be punished as a show case. I have three kids and I want them to study. But there is only one school here,” the mother said.

The teacher, Iryna Palujanskaja, has three children, too. Her husband has tried in vain to find employment in this small town. Now she has lost her job, too. According to Mikalai Kudravec, the chief of the local district education department, she is not to be allowed getting employed in the near future.

“A teacher is responsible for the fates of the children. She does not have the right to behave in this way,” he said.

Despite all this, Iryna Palujanskaja does not feel guilty.

“I think that a school student has no right to curse at his teacher. I should react in some way anyway. Now they don’t want to reach a peaceful settlement. I talked to the parents of the boy. The judge and the lawyer also asked them to revoke their complaint, but they are totally against,” she said.

In this situation, it is surprising how the diagnosis of the trauma suffered by Nikifar Stajanavic kept changing. The chief doctor of the local hospital, Mikalai Maksimau, described it as “the injury of soft tissues”, or to put it simple a usual bruise.

But the parents filed a medical statement which carries a harder diagnosis. The statement was issued by a hospital in Slonim from the neighboring Grodna region. Judge Alena Ladaga explained that the court considered the diagnosis which the doctors determined right after the boy asked for assistance.

Alena Ladaga: “The protocol has been drawn under Article 9.1 in the Administrative Code which deals with causing a bodily harm that did not lead to a short-term health disorder or insignificant loss of working ability, and is subject to a fine of 10 to 30 base rates or an administrative arrest.

The court is to decide on the punishment on condition that she is found guilty.”

The parents did not bring Nikifar to the first hearing that was scheduled to take place several days ago. They said that the boy did not remember anything anyway. The next hearing is set for April 19. It will take place in absentia of the boy.

Photo by elgg.net