The education authorities in the municipality Yaguajayin the province of Sancti Spiritusthe investigations into the alleged assault of a five-year-old boy by a teacher concluded.
Finally the teacher was sanctioned with her transfer to another position under different working conditions for a period of one year.
However, the General Directorate of Education of Yaguajay took that measure after the minor’s family moved to Havana and elevated the investigation to higher authoritieswho were the ones who considered the complaint valid and demanded that the Yaguajay Municipal Directorate take disciplinary action.
Asiel Carvallo González, general director of Education in said territory, says that the initial commission that they had created at the municipal levell, made up of specialists from the Orientation and Diagnostic Center (CDO), managers of the sector itself, community residents, PNR officers, social workers, among others, reviewed the case “in depth.”
He says that after applying techniques such as surveys and interviews with the minor’s family, with workers and with the students in the classroom themselves, 90 percent of the people interviewed recognized the professionalism of the teacher, as well as her dedication to the profession.
The local Education director reiterated that the clinical review of the minor by specialists at the Joaquín Paneca Consuegra hospital in Yaguajay revealed that there was no physical evidence of the alleged assault.
“There was never any bruise or mark on the skin. However, the criteria of the child who alleges that the teacher hit him remains,” she emphasized.
By not agreeing with the preliminary criteria issued by the aforementioned commission, The minor’s family decided to transfer him to the Center for the Protection of Children and Adolescents (CPNNA) in Havana.where he was also evaluated by different specialists who did declare the complaint made by the child’s father valid.
According to the report, issued by the National Early Childhood Directorate -to which he had access Radio Sancti Spíritus– “It was considered that the child told the truth in relation to the physical blow that the teacher gave him…”, and recommended that the municipal authority adopt a disciplinary measure in accordance with the incident.
The text, signed by María de los Ángeles Gallo Sánchez, national director of Early Childhood, suggested that both parents, however, “improve the comprehensive care that they currently provide to the minor to guide him and guarantee his advancement,” since they believe that the development The child’s cognitive ability is below his or her chronological age.
Returning to Sancti Spíritus, the local authorities then adopted as an “administrative measure” the aforementioned transfer of the teacher for a year to another position “under different working conditions”, conditions that were not specified by the aforementioned source.
The Director General of Education says that They did not sanction the teacher “in the most drastic way” because “she is a teacher who had maintained correct conduct in the educational sector, with impeccable actions until now.”
The measure has already been notified to the teacher, the minor’s family, the General Directorate of Education of the province and also the Ministry of Education (MINED).
The minor’s family decided that the child will remain in Havana for the moment, where he is enrolled in a school where he will complete preschool until next September, when he will return to the same school where the events occurred, the Mariana Grajales Coello primary school, located in the Jarahueca community, Yaguajay.
The complaint came to light at the beginning of May, from a Facebook post by the minor’s aunt accompanied by a video where the child himself explained that the teacher had hit him.
According to the complaint, the minor had been hit with a wooden object. The publication immediately went viral and generated thousands of reactions on social networks.
After the case spread, the teacher was separated from the school until the investigations were concluded, as previously revealed by Andrei Armas Bravo, general director of Education in the province of Sancti Spíritus.
