A parent association on the island of Samos sued a teacher whom they accuse of encouraging students to ignore their parents’ wishes with regards to their opposition to refugee children entering the school.
In February 2018, the primary school teacher in the town of Vathi spoke up against racism and defended the refugee children’s right to education during a lesson in 2018. She encouraged students to embrace refugee children.
Following their parents’ instructions, the pupils had opposed the presence of refugee children expressing “concern about the danger of diseases spread.”
The parent association had already decided against the presence of 14 refugee children, even though they would attend special classes in the afternoon.
The dispute ended in the principal’s office where a group of 15 parents -3 of them had children in the teacher’s class – and the teacher. During the debate, the teacher allegedly called the parents “racists.”
The parents argued that during the intense dialogue, the teacher asked them “are you racist or do you want to make your children [racists]?”
The parents association filed a lawsuit claiming “50,000 euros in damages because the teacher abused their personality and harmed their mental and physical health.”
A court on Samos is to hear the case today, Monday.
The teacher denied that she called the parents “racists.”
It is worth noting that the school principal is to testify against the teacher, notes daily ethnos.
The teacher has the support of the Teachers’ and other unions on the island some of them have launched work stoppage in protest.
Some of the people now living on Samos came from the Asia Minor catastrophe in 1922. They, too, were refugees. Now, apparently, we are “pur laine”.
Those refugees were also denied schooling, participation in every day society and were called “tourkospori” even though they were as Greek as those on Samos.
Shame on them. It’s unfortunate that human memory is very short and only chooses to remember what it wants to. This is why we are constantly doomed to repeat history.