The parents of a student allegedly assaulted by his teacher in Starville School in Jahi, Abuja, have given what they say is their own side of the story, while threatening to sue the institution for posting videos showing them slapping the man.
The school authorities have since expelled the student and banned the parents, Mr and Mrs Balogun, from coming close to the school premises.
The unnamed teacher claimed he slapped the student for reportedly pushing him twice.
Later, during a meeting with the principal and the parents, the situation escalated when both father and mother dealt slaps to the face of teacher in retaliation.
However, the parents of the pupil who was allegedly assaulted by his teacher in an Abuja-based school have come out to give what they claim is their own side of the story.
In a statement released by their lawyers, the parents claim their child had repeatedly complained of repeated assault from the said teacher. The aggrieved parents claim the repeated assault had even started taking a tow on their child as he frequently complained of headache and blurred vision as a result of the slaps. The parents also claimed other students confirmed the repeated acts of assault by the teacher.
The parents said they went to the school to seek a resolution only for them to be met with a teacher who was recounting the assault with ‘’chilling nonchalance’’ and speaking in a manner as if he was right to slap their child.
The parents also mentioned that the principal of the school was all about filming them. They stated that it was the teacher’s arrogant justification and their fierce parental love that forced them to descend on the teacher with slaps.
They argue that instead of intervening to restore order, the Principal shamelessly continued recording and later uploaded the footage to social media.
They demanded that within the next 24 hours, the school must Remove the video in its entirety from every platform, Conduct an independent investigation into the teacher’s conduct, Implement verifiable child-protection reforms to safeguard every pupil from targeted harm by peers or regrettably staff, retract all false claims regarding the child’s expulsion and the alleged refund of fees and produce and preserve all CCTV records of the child’s classroom which contains footages of the multiple times the child was assaulted by the teacher in the video.
They say failure to do this, they will be compelled to escalate the matter to the Federal Ministry of Education, the National Human Rights Commission, the Nigeria Police Force and the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory to seek all necessary legal remedies.
