The youth from the town of Möriken-Wildegg in Switzerland, talked a lot about the Quran, and during recess instructed girls to dress more modestly.
The case has caused shock in the country. Last week, the Argauer Zeitung published the news, that the student from the school broke the jaw of a teacher by punching her repeatedly with his fist.
He did this when she wanted to find out if the Syrian secondary-school student was once again carrying a knife — as he had already done in the past.
This time the issue was taken up by the Weltwoche journalist Alex Baur. According to his research the assault revolves around the 14-year-old “M”.
He allegedly comes from a Syrian family with numerous children, who had arrived in Switzerland five years ago and lives on welfare. The immigrant youth is described as “quite intelligent, self-confident and quick-witted”.
“M” however constantly talks about the Quran. He also requested — “in Allah’s name” — that the girls from the area dress and behave more modestly. In this context he allegedly played with a knife in the Hellmatt school’s recess court. This, according to Weltwoche, resulted in him having to empty his pockets every time before being allowed to enter any classroom.
During such a search, the assault on the teacher took place. She is said not to have touched the student, and only told him to show her the contents of his pockets. Because of that, the teen attacked her, and, according to eyewitnesses, he hit the 62-year-old female teacher five to six times with a his fist and the edge of his hand.
Additionally, while she was trying to escape, he allegedly kicked her. The teacher, a mother of two adult sons was about to retire. Weltwoche reported that she was still in shock.
The Syrian was arrested shortly after the assault. The youth was released however, after only two days in custody. The juvenile prosecutor is currently investigating the case.
It is not clear what will happen to the youth. According to Weltwoche, one of his friends, also a Syrian, was expelled a year earlier from the school due to discipline problems, “and was put in a special setting outside of the Chestenberg district school”.
André Schärer, the school district deputy, neither confirmed nor contradicted the report from the Aargauer Zeitung based on anonymous sources contacted by Weltwoche. He could only confirm that the Syrian had stood out from the beginning.
Schärer had also heard that “M” had allegedly told the girls in the recess court to dress more modestly: “There are clearly certain signs that he doesn’t agree with the way we are living our culture.”
It took a week before the incident was made public. The school district deputy insists nevertheless that nobody wanted to sweep the case under the rug: “It happened on Friday June 28. One day before the Youth Festival. Already that same evening we, together with the [female] president of the school district, decided on a communication strategy; we decided to actively inform male and female students and the parents as much as possible.”
But parents have been complaining that the school wanted to hide the incident. “This isn’t correct. We wrote a letter to the parents during the week following the Youth Festival. Our hands are tied, because of the investigation by the juvenile prosecutor. Even if we wanted to give out more information, we are not allowed to,” Schärer said about the complaints.
