PE teacher found guilty of beating up student

A physical education teacher was yesterday fined Lm60 for beating up a student at school a year ago, an offence a magistrate described as "very serious".

Magistrate Abigail Lofaro found Antonello Calleja, 32, of Balzan guilty of slightly injuring the 16-year-old boy at San Anton school on January 20 last year.

The boy's mother, whose voice trembled as she testified, explained how her son returned home from school with a black eye, bruised ribs and a swollen arm. He told her he had fallen but the next day he revealed that his teacher had beat him. The mother explained that when she and her husband learnt what happened her husband went livid. "My husband wanted to take one path and I wanted to take another. Eventually, we proceeded according to law.

"I called the school's headmaster Mr (Louis) Pisani and he told me he was sorry but Mr Nello (Calleja) had lost it."

The mother went to school the following day and spoke to Calleja who told her he was sorry and explained that the day in question he was alone with all those students.

"I told him to stop there. I told him that nothing he could say would justify his beating up my son. I told him he had to apologise to my son in front of all the children who had witnessed the beating. I also told him I held him responsible for the psychological damage suffered by my son," she said.

Calleja then took the witness stand in his defence and explained he had been a teacher for 11 years and had been teaching at San Anton for three to four years.

On the day of the incident he was coaching some students for an upcoming game and, apart from the team, there were another five students present on the ground. These five students started throwing things and joking around and one of them threw a piece of bread into the teacher's bag.

At that point the boy went up to his friend who threw the bread and told him not to pick on small children, referring to the teacher.

Calleja went on to explain how he told the boy he would show him who was a small child and when he approached the boy, the student stepped backwards and fell over the stairs behind him.

"I leaned over him to pick him up to take him to the assistant head's office to report him. That was when my knee hit his chest. Since I could not pick him up from where I was, I jumped over him and my leg hit his head. I then pulled him by the collar and he came with me to the assistant head's office."

Calleja said he did not know anything about the black eye and denied pushing the boy against the lockers. He explained that he did not mean to beat him but only wanted to go on with the PE lesson.

Two days after the incident he apologised to the boy's mother and also apologised for his attitude in front of students. He apologised because, as a teacher, he should have remained calm but instead he had shouted and been too rough.

He said he had appeared before the school board but was never given a warning. About a week ago, during parents' day, a police officer went to serve him with the summons to appear in court yesterday.

On hearing the evidence Magistrate Lofaro found Calleja guilty of the charge and fined him Lm60. She also bound him not to approach the boy against a Lm100 fine in default.

Police Inspector Paul Bond prosecuted.

Dr Michael Sciriha appeared for Calleja.

Dr Aldo Vella represented the boy.