Chalandri: Outrage over student allegations of retaliatory behavior by the principal

An internal investigation (EDE) has been ordered. For about a month now, the students have been occupying the 3rd EPAL Chalandri in protest of the authoritarian management by the school administration, which has led to the initiation of the internal investigation.

The school’s lock, despite the teachers’ efforts to remove it, remains visibly placed on the gates, with no changes in the situation as the school continues to be empty.

On the school gates, students have posted a banner reading, “School should educate, not destroy,” expressing their strong objections to the principal’s practices.

Notably, the bell rang as usual at 14:00, but the school remained closed and empty, with no students coming out of the building. The protests continue, with students reporting that they are being forced to undertake tasks within the school to “erase” their absences. However, this does not align with the promises made by the administration.

Students and parents highlight that the principal remains at the school, despite an incident last December when a student was injured during an attempt by teachers, under the principal’s instructions, to break the lock and chains.

According to the latest allegations, students are being forced to perform tasks such as digging trenches in the school garden to erase their absences, but, as parents report, even after completing the tasks, the absences remain recorded, causing significant frustration.

It is noted that a meeting was held at the Secondary Education Directorate, attended by parents and teachers of the vocational school. During the meeting, the principal acknowledged that there is a problem and promised to resolve it, though without clarifying how.

Speaking to Mega, the mother of a student at the school accused the principal of imposing social work on the children to erase mass expulsions, for which there has been no notification to the parents.

“The children had to dig a trench in the yard for the rainwater to drain, giving them shovels and rakes, without supervision and without parental consent, which could have been dangerous. If a child had wandered off or fallen, who would be responsible if they were injured?” the student’s mother added.

“This principal is mocking the children because she doesn’t actually erase their absences, she tells them she won’t. We don’t know why our children received these expulsions.”