Physical and sexual abuse of children in a boys' elementary school in the city of Rey

Published reports revealed physical and sexual abuse of children at a boys' elementary school in the city of Rey by their teacher.

The shocking news of the sexual abuse incident in addition to the physical abuse of children in an elementary school has shocked everyone and has caused a lot of reactions from parents. In this elementary school, a male teacher took children to the school prayer room under the pretext of "military discipline" and repeatedly sexually abused and assaulted them by touching their private parts.

According to reports from the Hammihan newspaper, the teacher, who started working at the school last year, has taken a number of fifth-grade children to the school prayer room at least once since early December of last year (1403) on the pretext of not studying and punished them. The teacher called his punishment and abuse "military punishment," which included sitting and standing, touching private parts of the body with his feet, and sexual harassment accompanied by threats.

The children's parents had repeatedly complained to the school principal in recent months about the teacher's misbehavior, which included expelling children from class, swearing and using foul language at students, and throwing markers at them, but their protests had been in vain. Most of the children had also remained silent about the sexual assault out of fear, but some parents whose children had been sexually assaulted had realized there was a more serious problem due to severe anxiety, nightmares, academic failure, and their child's unwillingness to attend school.

In early March 1403, one of the children informed his mother about the sexual abuse, and the issue spread among the families, as a result of which other children gradually spoke to their families about the abuse they had experienced at the hands of their teacher.

As a result of the children's poor mental state, the mothers immediately filed a new complaint with the school principal, and despite claiming that there was a camera in the prayer room, the principal refused to provide the footage recorded by the camera. A few days after this news was published in the class mothers' group on the "Shad" network, which was affiliated with education, the news was deleted without their knowledge, and no one else noticed the mothers' complaint about the young teacher's sexual harassment.

According to published reports, nine students were sent to the Education and Training Counseling Center by mid-March of last year, and some children received two sessions of psychological counseling and others received one. The Ministry of Education's public relations department also announced that the Education and Training Center is awaiting the investigation of the violations by the oversight board, but will follow up on the incident vigorously and, if confirmed, will deal with it.

The parents had not filed a legal complaint by the end of March and were all waiting for the Department of Education to respond. According to the mother of one of the children who had been abused, the Department of Education told the families not to escalate the issue or make it bigger.

The Department of Education's indifference to this issue and the excessive corporal punishment that was inflicted on the students' private parts caused the parents' outcry to grow louder, so much so that the teacher in question was fired from the school and the school principal, who is also a parent of a woman, lost his position.

Last night, the governor of Rey announced that the head of education in District 1 of Rey will also resign due to the failure to report the incidents to higher authorities. The mothers of the students believe that similar incidents have occurred many times in the past, but due to threats from the teacher, their children have not been able to speak out. The silence of the students has also caused this issue to repeat itself.

The parents' question is why, despite the repetition of such a problem in the past and the parents' repeated warnings to the management, management system, and education, they acted so slowly and did not address it. The parents' repeated complaints about this issue and the children's mental state led the Public Prosecutor and the Rey City Revolution to directly intervene in this issue.

Mohammad Mehdi Rahimi announced last night, Sunday, April 14, that a case has been filed under the Child and Adolescent Protection Law, but the investigation process must be completely confidential to preserve the psychological safety of the child victims and prevent the publication of non-expert opinions.

Bijan Soleymanpour, Deputy Governor and Governor of Rey City, also thanked the media for accurately reporting this incident this morning, Monday, April 15, and announced that the Director of Education of District One was dismissed for negligence and failure to report to higher authorities.

His appreciation of the media for publishing this bitter incident shows that, although this action was taken late, it indicates a change in attitude towards the role of the media in clarifying social issues, which can be considered a step towards reform.