This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Stephen Bain (talk | contribs) at 08:20, 2 June 2007 (moved Suicide of Anna Halman to 2006 Gdansk school suicide incident: anonymising title prior to merge). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 08:20, 2 June 2007 by Stephen Bain (talk | contribs) (moved Suicide of Anna Halman to 2006 Gdansk school suicide incident: anonymising title prior to merge)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The suicide of Anna Halman occurred on August 21 2006 when Halman, aged 14, took her own life following a serious sexual assault.
Anna Halman
Anna Halman (June 21 1992 - October 21 2006) was a student from Kiełpino Górne who attended Gymnasium #2 in Gdansk.
Events
On October 20 2006 Halman was the victim of a sexual assault. In her classroom, in the teacher's absence, male classmates stripped and sexually molested her while one boy filmed the incident with his mobile phone. The following day she committed suicide. Her story was carried by the media, and she was known as Anna or Ania (an affectionate diminutive of the name Anna) until her full name was revealed.
In response to the incident and the scandal it caused, the Polish Minister of Education, Roman Giertych, launched a Zero Tolerance school reform. Under this plan, teachers would have the legal status of civil servants, making violent crimes against them punishable by higher penalties. Head teachers will be, in theory, able to send aggressive pupils to perform community service and these students' parents may also be fined. Teachers who fail to report violent acts in school could face a prison sentence.
This plan has been criticized by psychologists stating that more severe punishments won't fix the real problem.
References
External links
- http://www.gazetawyborcza.pl/1,75478,3703914.html Polish site
- http://gdansk.naszemiasto.pl/wydarzenia/661922.html Polish site
- http://www.rzeczpospolita.pl/dodatki/warszawa_070507/warszawa_a_5.html Polish site
- http://www.sarm.sk/indexPure.cfm?module=articles&page=ArticlePrint&ArticleID=8588 Slovak site