The father of a second-year ESO student at the IES Agustín Espinosa in Arrecife reported this Tuesday to the National Police the aggression that he claims his son suffered by another student last Friday. The medical report that accompanies the complaint does not refer to visible physical signs due to the aggression, although it states that the child claimed to suffer from a headache. In addition, the minor reported that after being hit with a "non-blunt" object, he also suffered blurred vision, dizziness and nausea.
According to his father, the child has been suffering a "trajectory" of "humiliations, vexations, harassment" in the center, although it was this Tuesday when he decided to file a complaint for that alleged aggression. The events took place when a Carnival party was being held at the educational center and all the students were dressed up. The father explains that his son, who is 13 years old, chose a samurai costume and wore a "soft combat" type sword, "a PVC tube, pipe, which is covered with foam and lined with American tape." He also carried "a wooden pistol, those from the Chinese that carry those thin rubber bands for the hair." Always according to his version, at one point one of those rubber bands "escaped and hit him in the head or face" another student, who he says reacted violently. "He grabbed my son's sword and started hitting him repeatedly on the nape of the neck, until my son says he felt like vomiting, dizziness, practically losing consciousness, black and white vision... it's a very disproportionate reaction for something so trivial," says his father.
When they got home, the parents noticed something "strange", but they didn't know what it was due to. The child had won the costume contest and came home with the prize, but slept many hours in the afternoon and also at night. "I was surprised," admits his father. It wasn't until Sunday when he told them what happened. That same day they took him to the doctor, who prepared that report, and on Tuesday the father filed the complaint with the National Police. "I went to report the facts, to whoever has the legal or juridical capacity to understand to whom it is addressed," explains the father, who stresses that he is not reporting "the child, nor the director nor anyone", but rather puts what happened "in the knowledge" of the Police.
In addition to this alleged aggression, he believes that his son could be suffering a case of "bullying or harassment", although he clarifies that until now the episodes had been of "much lesser degree". Before the Police, as stated in the complaint, this father stated that "he intends to end this type of situation towards his son, since, although it is the first time he has suffered blows, on more occasions he has been the object of ridicule or mockery, for his shyness and good grades."
Maintaining "a pulse" with the Ministry
As a result of what happened, this father met this Thursday with the management of the center and an inspector from the Education area of Lanzarote, who explained to him, according to him, the "protocol" that the Government of the Canary Islands has for cases of "aggressions" of different kinds or "harassment". They also urged him to "take" the child to the center on the 15th, since this father says that he intends to present a letter so that his son stops attending classes until the situation is resolved.
Also, always according to the version of this father, in that meeting they told him that the minor who attacked his son is a young man with "mental problems" who is "subject to medication." "The boy has had a history of disproportionate reactions," he says they told him at that meeting. However, he maintains that this "worries him more", despite the fact that the educational authorities "insisted that they are going to be more careful". La Voz de Lanzarote has tried to obtain the version of the Insular Directorate of Education, both about the meeting and about the complaint of this father, but they have not wanted to make statements, referring to the direction of the center. This media has also tried to call the institute, but the educational centers are on vacation this week and have not answered the call.
This father, for his part, says that next Monday he intends to present a letter at the center giving an account "not only of this incident of physical aggression as such, but also of a trajectory that may not be considered bullying or school harassment, because for that there must be a series of requirements, but yes humiliations, vexations and harassment", he explains. It is, in short, a letter with which he intends to record in the Secretariat of the center that the minor will not attend class and for what reasons he will stop attending.
According to him, he intends to maintain "a pulse" of "one or two weeks" with the Ministry, during which his son will not attend class. With this, he wants to achieve that the Prevention and Assistance Service against School Harassment of the Government of the Canary Islands is "strengthened". He explains that during the meeting held this Thursday they explained to him that, within that service, a psychologist moves in 24 or 48 hours to the centers where an incident has occurred. He, for his part, defends that there be "a specialized care service in the centers, in situ, without the need for an incident to occur", and assures that he will try to "wrest the promise" in this regard. He stresses, however, that he does not "hold them responsible for the situation" and that his son "will eventually return" to class, "because he has to go."
