Loja-Writing
In educational establishments there are usually conflicts between parents and teachers due to situations that occur with students in the classroom. Several of these conflicts can be resolved within the school, but others go to the districts or can reach justice when a crime is committed.
One of those cases reached a court in Loja after a complaint in which a rural teacher was accused of constantly humiliating a 5-year-old student. She happened at a campus of the Sabanilla parish, in the Celica canton, during the 2018-2019 school year.
According to the process, she did not greet the student, prevented him from sharing recess with his classmates, among other situations.
The minor’s grandmother discovered the matter when the boy tried to hang himself from a beam in the kitchen of his house. When delving into the reasons, the boy apparently said that “his teacher did not want him”, according to the testimony collected by the Prosecutor’s Office.
The teacher faced a process for the crime of hate acts towards her student. The Prosecutor’s Office collected data. After hearings, this week a court found her guilty and sentenced her to four years in prison.
According to the current district director of Education in Celica, Gerardo Guamán, the now sentenced teacher worked in 2018 at the María Sánchez school, in the Sabanilla parish, in the Celica canton.
After the complaint that involved her, she was transferred to another campus. She was sent to the 12 de Diciembre parish in the Pindal canton, in Loja. She there she kept working.
According to Guamán, the news of the conviction has taken them by surprise, since no complaints of this type had been known in the rural sector of this province.
The victim in this case is known to continue studying in the area and is currently in the fourth grade of basic general education.
After knowing the sentence received by the teacher of a school in Loja, the National Union of Educators (UNE) said that it will review the file and the scope of this sentence.
Isabel Vargas, president of the UNE at the national level, indicated that they will review the file with lawyers to verify if due process was followed.
The leader specified that the union defends the best interests of children and adolescents, but due process is also required because there are cases with similar problems in which this has not been respected.
Similar sentences have already been issued in Ecuador in previous years. In 2011, a mother denounced a teacher at a public school in Sauces 5, in the north of Guayaquil, for discriminating against her son, then 9 years old, with an intellectual disability.
Two years and eight months later, a court in Guayas orally declared the teacher guilty of the hate crime against the minor, who suffers from 65% intellectual disability due to bipolar disorders.
Vargas indicated that they seek a reform of the Organic Law, in which the Ministry of Education ceases to be judge and party in certain cases where teachers have been involved.
The president of the National Union of Educators of Loja, Gilbert Granda, stated that in this province it is the first time that such a case has been presented (with a criminal sentence), however, there have been several complaints, but they have even been resolved. within the institution itself.
“The teacher or the teaching profession should not be stigmatized. There are teachers and teachers, just as there are journalists and journalists, doctors and doctors, so there is an exception in education professionals, I imagine that a fair process has been followed without persecution and without hatred, and we will know that later because I am going to ask for more information and find out what it is about,” he said.
Vargas and Granda agree that there have been some other cases in past years, with teachers denounced, criminally prosecuted, who have been acquitted, but have not been reinstated in their positions as teachers.
“They have managed to disprove these accusations, but the State has not returned the charges. We do not defend the rapist, abuser or accuser, we defend the rights of children and young people, but we also defend due process so that the sentences are not vitiated by error”, he said. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
