Teacher says warnings over Stylianos were reported

The former teacher of Stylianos Constantinou, the 14-year-old boy who died by suicide in 2019, told Nicosia district court on Friday that she had reported everything the child told her about alleged violence at home. “I reported everything that Stylianos told me about violence. I did not hide anything,” she told the court. During cross-examination, lawyer for the boy’s father Konstantinos Kazantzis suggested that the teacher’s reports about Stylianos’ aggression and behaviour at school were based on her own conclusions and that she could not have known what was happening at his home. The teacher said that, based on her observations as an educator, the child had displayed changes in his behaviour and had trouble concentrating, adding that the family situation “did not allow him to function smoothly in school”.

Reference was also made to abrasions, a head injury and a burn mark on the child’s body, which the witness had mentioned during earlier proceedings. According to the teacher, Stylianos had told her that the burn was caused by his father extinguishing a cigarette on his body. Asked whether she knew that the child’s parents had never smoked, she said she could not have known. Kazantzis also questioned the teacher about incidents she had mentioned during earlier proceedings but which, he said, were not included in her investigative statement given in 2020. The teacher said she had mentioned many things at the time but that they had been recorded “in a laconic manner”, adding that she had not been asked specific questions. “Seeing that the trial will take place and thinking back, some incidents came to mind. I want, while I am now being given a second chance to speak on behalf of my student, to speak and do everything right,” she said. Asked whether the child’s…