PARIS: A French court on Friday fined a preschool teacher for having beaten a three-year-old child in class, a case that sparked nationwide anger and a shocked response from the then-education minister.
Video footage of the incident, filmed by a parent at the school in central Paris, went viral after it was posted online.
The 52-year-old teacher was given a 3,000-euro ($3,140) fine, half of it suspended, after admitting to having lost her cool in the incident last September.
Prosecutors had asked for a four-month suspended sentence.
The court opted not to record the fine as a criminal conviction, ruling that the teacher had been under intense pressure and that it had been a one-off incident.
But she was ordered to pay 1,600 euros to the mother of the child concerned.
The incident happened on September 3, the day after French pupils returned to school from the summer break.
At the time, the then-education minister Nicole Belloubet described the images filmed as “terribly shocking and unacceptable,” adding that she had immediately ordered the teacher’s suspension.
After Friday’s ruling, the teacher’s lawyer Laurent Hazan told reporters that his client was “relieved.”
In court, she said the girl had been having a meltdown in class worse than any she had seen in 30 years of teaching.
The girl had thrown a chair, which had nearly hit another child, she added.
But of the blow, she admitted, in tears, “I lost my cool,” and offered her apologies to the child and her family.
Court convicts preschool teacher of child-beating that shocked France
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Court convicts preschool teacher of child-beating that shocked France
- Video footage of the incident, filmed by a parent at the school in central Paris, went viral
- The 52-year-old teacher was given a $3,140 fine, half of it suspended
Fans bid farewell to Japan’s only pandas
TOKYO: Panda lovers in Tokyo said goodbye on Sunday to a hugely popular pair of the bears that are set to return to China, leaving Japan without the beloved animals for the first time in half a century.
Loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy” program, the distinctive black-and-white animals have symbolized friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1972.
Some visitors at Ueno Zoological Gardens were left teary-eyed as they watched Japan’s only two pandas Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao munch on bamboo.
The animals are expected to leave for China on Tuesday following a souring of relations between Asia’s two largest economies.
“I feel like seeing pandas can help create a connection with China too, so in that sense I really would like pandas to come back to Japan again,” said Gen Takahashi, 39, a Tokyo resident who visited the zoo with his wife and their two-year-old daughter.
“Kids love pandas as well, so if we could see them with our own eyes in Japan, I’d definitely want to go.”
The pandas’ abrupt return was announced last month after Japan’s conservative premier Sanae Takaichi hinted Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of any attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery took turns viewing the four-year-old twins at Ueno zoo while others gathered nearby, many sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to celebrate the moment.
Mayuko Sumida traveled several hours from the central Aichi region in the hope of seeing them despite not winning the lottery.
“Even though it’s so big, its movements are really funny-sometimes it even acts kind of like a person,” she said, adding that she was “totally hooked.”
“Japan’s going to be left with zero pandas. It feels kind of sad,” she said.
Their departure might not be politically motivated, but if pandas return to Japan in the future it would symbolize warming relations, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and expert in East Asian international relations.
“In the future...if there are intentions of improving bilateral ties on both sides, it’s possible that (the return of) pandas will be on the table,” he told AFP.
