“He was a living child who was suffering,” said a former assistant principal at Agia Varvara Elementary School, testifying Tuesday at the trial regarding the death of 14-year-old Stylianos, referring to the information she had received about marks on the child’s body and the concerns she expressed during her communication with a Social Welfare Services (YKE) official.
The witness, E.N., who had served as the school’s principal from December 2010 to March 2011, described incidents that had been reported to her by teachers, as well as her own personal observations regarding Stylianos’s situation while he was in the first grade of elementary school.
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While reading her written testimony, which she had submitted to the criminal investigator in 2020, the witness clarified that she had never taught Stylianos nor was she in charge of his class. She did, however, serve as acting principal for about four months while the principal was absent.
As she testified, during that period she received updates primarily from Stylianos’s teacher, but also from the special education teacher and the speech therapist, regarding issues related to his behavior and personal hygiene.
She stated that she visited Stylianos’s classroom and noticed that the child had a bad odor, dirty fingernails, and stains on his clothes. To determine whether this was his usual appearance, she said she observed him repeatedly in the morning when he arrived at school and found the same conditions.
“At 7:30 in the morning, I would pretend to be supervising the children in the schoolyard. I’d see Stylianos arriving at school in the morning, say good morning to him, and see the same scene,” he said. She added that she discussed the matter with his mother, who reacted by saying that she made sure the child was clean.
Referring to Stylianos’s behavior, the witness said that the child was often isolated during recess and did not play with his classmates. When she asked the other children one day why they didn’t play with him, they replied, “Ma’am, he never plays.”
“I’ve never seen a sadder child than Stylianos,” she said, adding that she didn’t recall ever seeing him smile or be in a good mood. She even described a conversation they’d had during which her child had told her, “Ma’am, when you smile, you shine.” She replied, “My dear Stylianos, when you smile, the whole school will shine,” noting that he had never once smiled at her.
Regarding the incidents of violent behavior, the witness stated that, according to information she received from the child’s teacher and speech therapist, from mid-February to early March 2011, there were three serious incidents at the school.
Describing the first incident, she said that Stylianos, during class, was under his desk, peeling mandarins and throwing them at the other children, while also tearing up and throwing their assignments. When his aide tried to calm him down, he kicked her, and then threw objects from his desk and kicked both his teacher and the special education teacher, who had come into the classroom to calm him down. Subsequently, as she said, Stylianos left the school and began running through the streets, with his aide and the special education teacher following him, until his parents were notified and his father located him.
Regarding the second incident, he reported that it occurred in the technology classroom, where Stylianos was making noise with chairs and his teacher reprimanded him. As she said, the child struck the teacher and then began throwing the classroom equipment around. When the aide tried to calm him down, he struck her as well.
His mother arrived at the school to pick him up; however, according to the witness, when she and the aide tried to get him into the car, the child shouted, “I don’t want to go home”. The witness reported that Stylianos found a syringe with a needle and tried to stab his mother in the leg, and then grabbed a hammer and tried to hit her in the stomach.
During the third incident, Stylianos overturned his desk and tried to grab the fire extinguisher; he then ran into the courtyard and attempted to flee the school, but was unsuccessful.
The witness also described an incident that, as she said, she had witnessed herself while standing outside the principal’s office and talking with the mother of another student. As she reported, she heard children screaming, and when she approached Stylianos’s classroom, she saw his mother holding him against her while he was frantically pulling her hair.
“By the time I got there, things had calmed down, and Stylianos was slumped against his mother’s shoulder, exhausted,” she said. When the witness asked the mother what had happened, she replied, “I don’t know, but whatever happened, it’s over.” The witness stated that she tried to discuss the incident with her again, but the mother refused to give her any explanation.
“What I saw wasn’t normal. I told her I wasn’t asking out of curiosity. I wanted us to help the child manage his anger,” she testified. She added that the mother was withholding information, while she herself was trying to gain her trust so they could help the child. As she explained, when she asked his teacher, the teacher told her that Stylianos had been calm that day, but when he saw his mother, he started shouting, “I don’t want to go home.”
The witness said she documented the events that had been reported to her and sent a letter to the Ministry of Education, in which she raised, among other things, questions about who was responsible and how the school’s goals could be achieved under these circumstances.
She also made specific mention of an incident in which she was informed by the chaperone that Stylianos had marks on his body. As she testified, when the chaperone asked him about it, her son replied, “The priest pressed a cigarette against me.”
She said that the marks were round and were in the process of healing. At the same time, she noted that after the incident, she contacted by phone the social worker from the Social Services who was monitoring the family at that time—who is the third defendant in the case—to inform her of the situation.
According to the witness, the social worker asked her whether the marks were fresh, to which she replied that they were already in the process of healing. As she stated, the officer told her to notify her when there were fresh marks so that a report could be filed.
“So was the child supposed to suffer the same torment? Was the child a guinea pig? He was a living child who was suffering,” the witness said, adding that she expected to be informed that the incident would be investigated by the Special Investigation Units. “I felt that we were playing with the child’s mental and physical endurance,” she added.
In response to a question from the representative of the Prosecution, Elena Konstantinou, regarding what had been discussed at the two multi-topic meetings in which the witness participated, the witness stated that the father’s violent behavior had also been mentioned. Specifically, she mentioned that an incident had been discussed in which Stylianos could not sleep one night because he had a canker sore in his mouth, and his father hit him, as well as that his father would hit him when he misbehaved. She added that the mother reacted to reports regarding both hygiene and violence without accepting them.
She clarified, however, that she herself had not seen her father smoking. She did recall, however, seeing him one day at school holding a pack of cigarettes.
In response to a question from the prosecutor’s representative asking why she had concluded that Stylianos was not happy at home, as she had testified, the witness said she based her opinion on information she had received from his teacher, as well as on the fact that the child himself had expressed his refusal to return home.
The proceedings will continue on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m., with the defense attorneys cross-examining the witness.
Source: KYPE
