Epress.am News from Armenia
The RA Ministry of Education and Science reported on its website today that a history teacher at Yerevan’s No. 8 school named after A. Pushkin has resigned today.
The teacher, noted as Edward Yevgeni Gevorgizov in today’s edition of local paper168 Hours and as Edward Vargizev in yesterday’s article on PanArmenian.net, is seen in a YouTube video verbally and physically assaulting a child in his 8th grade class. The incident in the video was confirmed by the RA Ministry; though the footage was shot in May 2010, it only recently picked up circulation in YouTube and through social networking sites.
The school principal, Marieta Matghashyan, has confirmed that the incident took place in March this year.
“A teachers’ council was invited which discussed the issue, and the teacher apologized, was forgiven by the parent and the student, and successfully completed the academic year. Why all this has come up now, I can’t understand. The student had displayed very bad behavior that day, which resulted in the teacher’s unbalanced emotional state. He [the teacher] is human after all, it happens, but it’s shameful, there’s no excuse,” she said, adding that she won’t fire the teacher.
“He is such a man that he might leave the school voluntarily,” she said earlier.
The RA Ministry of Education and Science said in its statement today that protecting the rights of children is one of the pillars of its adopted policy and any display of violence in schools is unacceptable and objectionable.