Epress.am News from Armenia
The religion teacher of the Artashat town N1 school, Naira Mezhlumyan, slapped one of the three dozen 9-graders who’ve been boycotting classes in protest of Serzh Sargsyan’s PM appointment. The student’s uncle went to school and took down Sargsyan’s photo from the school wall, after which headmaster Tina Margaryan filed a crime report with the police, alleging that the student’s uncle had slapped her.
The man was taken into custody at the Artashat police department on Friday; his phone has since been unreachable, a relative of the family informed us, asking not to publish any names.
“The striking students were warned outside the school yesterday that they still had exams to pass and should reconsider their behavior. Then Mezhlumyan slapped my cousin so hard that her fingerprints remained on his face. One of the parents asked the teacher why she had slapped the kid and she replied, ‘He’s not your kid, is he? Why do you feel bad for him?’ All of this happened right in front of police officers.
“They locked the kids inside the school and called their parents. They stressed that only their fathers should go. One of them told the headmaster, ‘When the ‘88 earthquake happened, we were able to leave the school premises. Now, God forbid, an earthquake happens… Why do you keep the kids locked inside?’ The headmaster pointed to the picture of Serzh Sargsyan on the wall and said the ordered had come from the tops. The kid’s uncle then took down the photo and threw it away. Now a criminal case has been launched against the man on the allegation that he has hit the headmaster. That’s a lie; she has filed the report to make us withdraw our complaint about the slap. When we were filing the slap complaint, the police reprimanded us saying that we shouldn’t be filing a crime report for a slap.”