Student assault case:

Teacher gets two years’ hard labour

Kapila Somaratne, Panadura Group Correspondent

Panadura Provincial High Court Judge Malanee Gunaratne sentenced a schoolteacher of Sri Sumangala College, Panadura who pleaded guilty to assaulting a student to two years’ hard labour and suspended the sentence to 10 years and ordered to pay Rs 10,000 as State cost.

The Judge also directed the accused to pay Rs 500,000 as compensation to the 10-year-old student and deposit the money at the Court to be kept until the student reached 17 years.

The accused teacher Gamini Kumara Edirisuriya of Sri Sumangala College, Panadura, a Major of the Student Brigade pleaded guilty to an indictment of assaulting the student of St John’s College, Panadura near the school gate causing damage to his ear drum on February 13, 2004 when students broke the queue near the school gate when going out after school.

He is alleged to have slapped three students but they had escaped unhurt, State Counsel Wasantha Perera told Court that one student who received a hard blow on the ear was present in Court and he is short of hearing.

The Court should punish the teacher according to the amended law enactment operating in the country.

Attorney-at-Law Aruna Beddevithana in mitigation of the sentence told Court that the accused was employed as a teacher for the last 21 years and if the court imposed severe punishment, he would lose the job.

The accused is a father of two.

The Judge said the court considering the submissions made by the State Counsel and the Defence lawyer imposed the punishment.