15th Lyceum of Athens / Students were expelled for wanting to sing about Tempi at a school celebration

With one day elimination deemed appropriate address of the 15th Lyceum of Athens to punish two students of the school choir, because in defiance of her ban they wanted to to sing at the school celebration on March 25 a song for the 57 victims of the crime in Tempe and to say a few words about justice.

“And they learned first hand in their school, that justice is not only absent in Tempi but everywhere” underlines the Dimitris Spyridonidis, father of one of the expelled students, who revealed the unprecedented and infuriating incident. In his long post on Facebook, he also notes that after the announcement of the expulsion of the two students, the rest of the choir children went to the principal asking to be expelled and even when they were told that this is not possible, out of solidarity to their classmates refused to enter their classrooms for class and they took absences.

“The expulsion of the two students is a vindictive punishment for opinion, the courage of opinion and the assertion of free speech in the public school” emphasizes D. Spyridonidis.

As he complains, the expulsion came as a follow-up of authoritarianism and bullying which was practiced on the children of the school choir, as when teacher hastened to tear from their papers the song by P. Sidiropoulos “Someday they will come to tell you…” telling them that if they dare to say it he will crush them and at the end of the celebration he grabbed and took down the microphone from the student’s hands when he went to speak.

“I, as a member of the Union of Parents’ and Guardians’ Associations of the 6th Community of Athens, I am ashamed that we did not do what we really should have done and could have donewe left the children essentially alone and did not denounce from the beginning all that is practiced and passed on to them, the silencing, the authoritarianism, the intimidation and the punishments to exemplify and educate them” he says.

“Encouragement and support they needed and expected, as they deserve and they didn’t have it… Sorry kid…» he adds.

“The Pierakakes want such a dystopian public school with their evaluations, for the discipline and submission of teachers and students to their policies, the isolation and ostracism of those who think freely and react” he concludes in the postscript of his post which he accompanies with a photo from Nisyros High Schoolwith the names of the dead in the Tempe crime written on the school wall and the children with the verses of Kalvos, sent for solidarity of students and teachers to the children of the choir of the 15th GEL of Athens.

The entire post by Dimitris Spyridonidis

THEY WANTED TO SING FOR THE TEMBIES AT THE SCHOOL FESTIVAL ON MARCH 25TH AND THEY WERE PUNISHED WITH EXPULSION

Today it was announced the one-day expulsion of two children from the 15-member school choir of the 15th GEL who, defying the principal’s ban, tried at the end of the school celebration to sing a song about Tempi and say a few words about justice.

And they learned first hand in their school, that justice is not only absent in Tempi but everywhere.

After the announcement of the expulsion of the two children, the rest of the children of the choir went to the principal asking to be expelled as well and when they were told that this is not possible, out of solidarity with their classmates they refused to enter their classes for lessons and took absences.

The expulsion of the two students is a vindictive punishment for the spirit, the courage of the opinion and the assertion of freedom of speech in the public school.

And it came as a continuation of the authoritarianism and intimidation that was exerted on the children of the school choir, like when the teacher hurried to tear from their papers the song by P. Sidiropoulos Someday they will dare to tell you… telling them that if they dare to they say he will crush them and at the end of the celebration he grabbed and took down the microphone from the hands of a student when he went to speak.

A delirious atmosphere was deliberately created around the children of discussions about their rude behavior, their responsibility for the public display of a video of the school celebration on a website of a student political faction, alleged pushing of the principal, which she invented… and other such non-existent things, for creating false impressions to justify their unjustified punishment.

Speaking specifically about my 15-year-old son, a kind child, a good student and athlete, who by competing recently brought his high school first in the Panhellenic school fencing championship, I can say simply and clearly that he has nothing to do with this word of mouth .

He didn’t post anything on any website, he didn’t curse or touch anyone, he didn’t even shout, he just talked, as evidenced in the video recording of the school celebration.

When my child was informed of his expulsion he was told it was for rudeness… because he supposedly called his teachers liars, which is also a lie.

In fact, he was expelled because he dared to publicly tell the school principal that she was lying, when the principal, speaking from a microphone, to parents and students at the school celebration, claimed that the banning of the choir from singing about Tempi was a decision of the teachers’ union.

And he boldly repeated the same to the council of professors who invited him. The decision to ban was hers and she falsely invoked some non-existent decision of the teachers union. And as it turns out very easily, because the club has a minute book, there is no such decision recorded and signed by teachers forbidding the choir to sing for Tempi at the school festival. Therefore, the child was telling the truth and the director was falsely citing an association decision which did not exist. However, for a student to speak the truth openly and publicly, refuting his headmistress, was baptized rudeness, because it obviously affected her self-love and the prestige of her authority.

And as he was told after all, when he mentioned in the council the authoritarianism and intimidation that was exerted on the children so that they would not sing and not speak at the school festival, who are you to have an opinion and to judge? So who is to challenge the principal’s authority when she lies and has not yet learned to be silent in the face of authoritarianism and bullying in the school? Be expelled to learn…

And at this point I should say shame on those who, due to partisan expediency and from a position of apologists, because the video from the school celebration was posted for public viewing on their own website, obstructed, with the stance of their factions, the collective bodies of parents and educators to effectively and decisively intervene in the 15th GEL, to publicize what is happening and to defend the children of the school choir against arbitrariness and punishments, for their moving and commendable collective initiative to sing and talk about the crime in Tempi.

Speaking specifically to the collective bodies of parents and guardians, the defense of children in public schools is their very reason for existence, and the covert or not undermining of this basic duty at the altar of any partisan and partisan expedients defeats their purpose.

The children of the school choir of the 15th year with the sensitivities and ideals that they are imbued with in their adolescence expressed what was more collective, progressive and social in their school and faced what was more reactionary, intolerant and vindictive and we called them rude and let them be. they do whatever they want.

I, as a member of the Association of Parents and Guardians Associations of the 6th community of Athens, am ashamed that we did not do what we really should have done and could have done, we left the children essentially alone and did not denounce from the beginning all that was practiced and passed on them, the gagging, the authoritarianism, intimidation and punishments to exemplify and educate them.

Encouragement and support they needed and expected, as they deserve and they didn’t have it…

Sorry kid…

hyg. The Pierakakis want such a dystopian public school with their evaluations, for the discipline and submission of teachers and students to their policies, the isolation and ostracism of those who think freely and react.

The photo, with the names of the dead in the crime of Tempi, written on the school wall and the children with the lyrics of Kalvos, was taken at the Nisyros High School and sent to the children of the 15th GEL Athens choir in solidarity of students and teachers.