On December 11, a former worker at the Ribadesella 0 to 3-year-old school reported to the Civil Guard a possible case of mistreatment, humiliation and continued neglect of a group of children by two teachers. Weeks before he did the same at City Hall, before the Councilor for Education, Pablo García. “It is a way of working accepted by everyone,” points out the complainant in the indictment to which this newspaper has had access.
The complaint filed with the Benemérita warns, for example, that “when children are upset the solution is to tie them with harnesses to the hammocks on the floor and to the high chairs for long periods of time (about 30 minutes) as a form of punishment.” . Another corrective – points out the plaintiff – would be to isolate them in the bathroom or dining room. Regarding this last lesson, he provides photographs that, according to him, reproduce these scenes. “Another punishment consists of putting them on the outside sill of the patio windows so that they calm down when they are upset,” the lawsuit reads. The photo that accompanies this news item supposedly refers to the events narrated by the former worker, where one of the accused teachers can even be seen answering her mobile phone. Regarding this form of punishment, there are two photos – in addition to the one mentioned – included in the complaint.
It is also stated in the complaint that “there is a case of a child who at nap time presents a case of high stress, the reaction of the caregivers being not to pay attention to him, leaving him alone in the classroom, tying him in the hammock or locking him in the bathroom until he falls asleep from exhaustion. Another particular case is that of a girl who “spends long periods of time sitting alone and crying at the urinal, causing her to truly panic when going to the bathroom.”
These are children between two and three years old. The system of this school is based on the educational process of the children at the center always being with the same teachers. That is to say, they are taken from the moment they enter at zero years old until they leave the center at three. Currently, the complainant specifies, the investigated teachers are in charge of nearly twenty children.
Among the bad practices reported there are particular cases of children sleeping on the playground floor, children whose diaper is not changed for a long time after relieving themselves, or children who are not woken up immediately. They take a nap to eat and are left in the yard sleeping without supervision.
Transfer to the director
These events, reported on December 11, were previously brought to the attention of the center's management. “After speaking with the director and waiting a reasonable amount of time in the hope that they would be reversed, there was no change,” says the complainant. Also, and on two occasions, the complainant conveyed his concerns to the Councilor for Education, Pablo García. “He told me that he had a lot of work and that he would try to fix it by the beginning of the year,” says the former worker.
In this regard, the City Council assures this newspaper that it is keeping an investigation open to try to clarify the reported facts. Even so, neither the councilor nor the mayor, Paulo García Díaz, want to make statements on the matter.
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