ELAM has once again spoken out against the Commissioner for the Protection of Children’s Rights, Elena Perikleous, who, in a multi-page statement—regarding the incident in which an 11-year-old student was beaten by her classmates at an elementary school in the Nicosia district —pointed out that the party discriminates against children based on their ethnic and religious background, while also speaking out against scapegoating, stigmatization, and xenophobia.
“Since when is it racist to demand the protection of our children? Since when does acknowledging the realities in our schools, condemning violence, and demanding accountability constitute xenophobic behavior? Instead of focusing on protecting the victims (…), the Commissioner has chosen to target our party because we dared to bring to light an extremely serious incident. For ELAM, the rights of all children are non-negotiable. For our part, we did what was only natural. We demanded a full investigation into the beating of the student (…) just as would be done in cases involving Greek Cypriot students. What is racist, Commissioner, is the fact that this incident was not treated on an equal footing with others. The punishment of excluding the group of foreign students from attending church services is, in fact, a mockery of our intelligence.”
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
ELAM even called Commissioner Perikleous’s “party-based appointment to this specific position” “utterly unfortunate,” noting that “the least she can do is resign.”
READ ALSO: Blame, Stigmatization, and Xenophobia: Perikleous’s Response to a Party Statement on the Beating of an 11-Year-Old Schoolgirl
Speaking on the Alpha News program, Commissioner Perikleous stated that the issue of violence in schools requires a holistic approach.
“Our intervention addressed violence as violence and the reporting of violent incidents. We are calling for—and are in communication with the Ministry of Education—a thorough investigation of this specific incident, which is not the only one. There are many incidents of violence. There is a national strategy for addressing violence. There is a goal of ensuring safe schools. It goes without saying that all the protocols and procedures are in place. We are awaiting the investigation to see if they were implemented in this specific case as well. Our public statement—which, in fact, does not name any political party, because that is not our concern—our role has nothing to do with political confrontation; but rather with the fundamental issue of failing to hold anyone accountable for the violence, or attributing the cause of this specific incident to a characteristic associated with a group of children and thereby targeting those children. My role is to protect the child who has been subjected to violence so that they can return safely and with the necessary support to their school. And on a second level, once the incident has been investigated, we need to determine what went wrong.”
READ ALSO: “She’s screaming and scared”: The mother of a 10-year-old reports that her daughter has been beaten at school for the third time
