ATHENS – The principal of a Greek vocational training high school (EPAL) will be disciplined for physical and verbal abuse after an investigation into complaints brought by the school’s parents and guardians association.
The probe began in February and was said to have included interviews with 30 witnesses – teachers, students and parents – connected to the First Markopoulo-Oropos EPAL, state broadcaster ERT reported.
“She times the children’s bathroom breaks: six minutes for the girls and four for the boys,” the association’s Secretary, Eleni Konstantinidou, told ERT, saying that the principal, whose name was not made public, used abusive language and physical aggression against students and staff.
What she did wasn’t fully clarified but the association’s President Dimitris Eleftheras said the atmosphere was so bad that, “Several teachers have asked to be transferred to other schools and enrollments have dropped quite markedly. She insulted the teachers, calling them stinking worms and bullies.”
According to ERT, the association had also complained about the principal’s behavior in a letter to Education Minister Niki Kerameus in December, 2021 but it wasn’t said if she intervened in way to stop it.