Teacher beats 11-year-old

A teacher has “brutally beaten” an eleven-year-old in a classroom of one of Muharraq Governorate’s public boys’ schools on Wednesday, DT News has learned.

Apparently, the Arab national teacher slapped the boy twice, before his head hit a wooden desk, which caused a wound in his face that later required two stitches.

The sixth-grader’s father, who did not wish to be named, complained to the police after he took his son to King Hamad University Hospital (KHUH) in Busaiteen for treatment.

The Bahraini father confirmed to DT News that the incident occurred in Hidd Elementary and Intermediate Boys’ School on Wednesday morning.

“I was called to the school by the school’s social supervisor at around 9:30am. He explained the situation to me only when I reached there. I was shocked when I saw my son sitting at the supervisor’s room with a bruised face and a bloody shirt,” the father explained.

According to the father, he was informed only after the boy was taken to Hidd health centre, where the school staff was told to shift him to a hospital to get the wound stitched.

“They took my son without informing me. When I asked about how did this happen, I was told that my son refused to sit where the teacher had asked him to and things worsened. Even if he did so, beating is not the way to discipline a child. The wound was 2 centimeters away from his right eye. What if he lost his sight? We trust the school with our children. This can’t be the way to treat them,” the father commented.

The father added, “They didn’t allow me to meet the teacher who hit my son. But he apologised over the telephone. I was also contacted by an official in Education Ministry, who promised me that necessary procedures would be taken against the teacher. But, that didn’t stop me from filing a complaint in the police station.”