Teacher in ‘abuse’ probe,
A PRIMARY school teacher in Güzelyurt has been suspended following claims by parents of hurling a whiteboard eraser at a child’s face and pulling pupils’ hair during lessons — allegations he has strongly denied.
Details of the accusations emerged on Tuesday when a group of 50 parents of sixand seven-year-olds at the Barış Primary School lodged a joint complaint at Güzelyurt police headquarters.
They also accused English teacher Zihni Özçetiner of forcing children to do pushups while placing his foot on their backs.
The mothers and fathers, who held a protest outside the school on Tuesday, have also made complaints to the Education Ministry and the Cyprus Turkish Teachers’ Union.
Parents said they had decided to take action after their children were coming home “repeatedly complaining” about the teacher.
Headmaster Gökçen Kubilay told the parents that the Education Ministry would be sending an inspector to look into the complaints.
The ministry announced on Wednesday that Mr Özçetiner had been “removed” from his post until its investigations had been completed.
Mr Özçetiner denied any mistreatment, telling CyprusToday’s sister newspaper Kıbrıs that his “conscience is clear”.
“The allegations are totally untruthful,” he said. “Such behaviour is contrary to how I’ve been raised by my family and to my character.
“I have never hurt any children and the truth will surface. Then I will exercise my legal rights.”
Mr Özçetiner said he was teaching an “illegally combined class of 60 pupils” and that the most he had done to “maintain my authority” was to “raise my voice”.
He continued: “I have never been involved in a fight in my life nor have any complaints ever been made about me to the police.
“Everyone in Güzelyurt knows me and knows I am not that kind of a person.
“I teach two days a week at Barış Primary School and three days a week at Serhatköy Primary School. It’s interesting that this issue has been raised on the days that I don’t work at [the Barış school].”