The Cyprus Student Coordinating Committee (PSEM) strongly condemns the incident that occurred on Wednesday at the Idalion Lyceum, shortly before the start of an event marking the 50 years of occupation, attended by the Minister of Education, Athena Michaelidou, and other officials.
In a statement, the PSEM notes that, at the initiative of the elected Central Student Council, an agreement was reached between the school management and the organising committee of the event to display banners in the venue with the following slogans: “All armies out, independent island”, “Cyprus belongs to its people”, and “Cyprus – one homeland, one people”.
They further add that just before the official start of the event, specific teachers aggressively approached members of the Central Student Council, physically assaulting them and threatening them to remove the banners as they “disagreed with the content”.
The students, the statement mentions, explained to the teachers that the banners with the specific content were displayed following consultation with the relevant authorities and represent the official positions of the student movement.
The teachers continued their threats in a very intense manner and removed the banners on their own accord, ignoring the school management’s instructions.
“One of the teachers is even in a key position of a specific teachers’ union, representing their faction in OLMEK. We wonder what the educational community has to say about the behaviour of these individuals. Who gives them the right to silence students?”
“This action is CONDEMNABLE and constitutes a clear silencing of the Central Student Council, accompanied by violent behaviour and threats! Who allows individual teachers to act with impunity in our schools, ignoring the managements and, most importantly, assaulting the elected representatives of the students and what bothered them about the content of the slogans?”
“Half a century after the twin crime of the coup and the invasion, we see extreme right-wing views being revived within our schools, this time by teachers! The extreme right-wing and the hatred poisoning our country led to the twin crime, the consequences of which we still live with today concerning our country and our people.”
“We strongly condemn the incident, we call on the school management and the Minister herself to intervene and hold those responsible accountable, to lodge formal complaints against the two teachers. The authorities should not just investigate the incident; otherwise, they are accomplices to the incident,” concludes the statement.
