Inquiry into claims that teacher hit pupils

The Director of Education has set up a board to investigate allegations - made in court last week - that a teacher at a Hamrun primary school hit her pupils.

Handing down a Lm150 fine and two-year probation to a mother who admitted to assaulting her son's teacher (the teacher in question), Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera ordered that a copy of the judgement with the transcript of the evidence be sent to the Director of Education for the claims to be investigated.

Questioned by The Times yesterday, a spokesman for the Education Ministry said the board, set up in the past days, was starting to look into the allegations which surfaced last week.

Testifying in court, Josette Cassar, 38, pleaded guilty to assaulting Antonella Cardona - a Grade 6 teacher at Dun Gorg Preca School - because her son told her that his teacher had slammed him against a cupboard. The boy's version was confirmed by his classmates.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera heard the evidence of three other mothers whose children claimed they had been hit by the same teacher.