Head of school attacked by parent in argument over outing

The Malta Union of Teachers had condemned an attack on a school headmistress by a parent over an incident concerning a students’ outing.

The teachers’ union said on Wednesday that it had been informed of an incident where a parent had reacted violently to a decision by the school not to let their child - a student at the school - to attend an outing, on the grounds that they were currently sick with a medical certificate.

A police report has been filed on the incident.

The incident happened at an unnamed state primary school during admission time.

The union said the school had subsequently cancelled the entire outing “as a precaution”, with the MUT telling MaltaToday that this was done to avoid an escalation of the matter or a repetition of the incident during the outing.

The MUT emphasised that it had been saying for years that property security measures in school had to be implemented in order to protect educators. These include the presence of a security officer in schools.

The union also appealed to the government “not to ignore anymore the study conducted by the Education Ministry on security measures in schools especially now that funds have been allocated for this matter but have not been utilised to date.”

“Unless proper action is taken, more preventable incidents like this are bound to continue to happen,” the MUT said.

It added that it had also communicated with the Education Ministry so that all necessary measures be taken, in the circumstances of the case.

More to follow