File Opened Against Teacher in Ahar on Child Abuse Charges, “Incident Occurred Last Year”
Following the release of news about child abuse by a teacher in Ahar, the city’s Revolutionary Prosecutor says the incident occurred last year.
The Rokna news agency reported on Saturday, September 25, that a female student and four male students were abused by their teacher in Godel village, a suburb of Ahar in recent days.
According to the report, all these children made similar statements to their families saying that their teacher undressed them and abused them.
The report also stated that the teacher told families that he intended to “caress” these children.
In response to this news, Hossein Sabour, director of public relations for East Azerbaijan’s Education Ministry, on Sunday, September 26, told ILNA news agency that the occurrence of this incident at the beginning of the academic year was “impossible,” and said that “it has not yet been established for us whether this incident happened or was a false accusation.”
According to Sabour, the matter is under investigation by the Ahar County Prosecutor, and the teacher in question is currently free on bail.
Meanwhile, the General and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Ahar also announced that the incident occurred last year and said that only two parents of these students filed complaints.
Some social media users identified the teacher as a Basij member and close to the Friday prayer imam of Ahar.
In recent years, similar news reports of student sexual abuse have been published, including the sexual abuse of several students by a dormitory supervisor at a private high school in Tehran’s District 2.
After nearly 10 years of disputes with the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Guardian Council finally approved the bill for the protection of children and adolescents in June 2020.
Based on Article 4 of this law, “any form of harm, harassment, abuse and physical and psychological torture of children and intentional neglect of their physical and mental health and prevention of their education is prohibited and the perpetrator shall be sentenced to three months and one day to six months imprisonment or up to 10 million rials in cash fine.”
Source: Radio Farda
