Porto report confirms hospitalization of minor who used ‘rear choke’ on teacher

The Court of Appeal of Porto (TRP) confirmed the measure of hospitalization in an educational center for a 15-year-old boy who attacked a teacher in a classroom with a “strangulation from behind.”

The ruling, dated April 18, which Lusa read this Friday, rejected the appeal filed by the minor’s defense, upholding the decision of the Porto Family and Juvenile Court.

The decision follows an educational protective proceeding that was brought against a minor for acts constituting a crime against a qualified physical integrity that occurred on April 17, 2023, during an elementary and middle school art class. do Cerco, in Porto.

The court found that the minor, along with other classmates, walked around the classroom with drawings made in that class, “in a tone of fun and defiance of the teacher,” as if they were organizing a parade.

Following this behavior, the teacher ordered the students to sit down, but the minor did not comply and attacked the teacher using a rear naked choke, a method that causes suffocation.

Seeing that she was being restrained and suffocated, the teacher kicked the boy, forcing him away, and pressed the staff call button to ask for help. One of the school’s deputies then arrived and the student left the classroom.

After discussion and a court hearing, the Porto Family and Minors Court decided to apply a measure of protection to the minor in the form of hospitalization in an open educational center for a period of eight months.

Dissatisfied with the decision, the minor’s lawyer appealed to the Porto Court of Appeal for non-institutional measures, arguing that about a year had passed between the date of the facts and the present date, and the minor had not committed any type of incident.

However, the judges state that the minor has already been subject to two non-institutional measures for committing aggravated threats in 2022 and for simple offenses against physical integrity in 2023, which “were not enough to induce him to change his behavior”, and emphasize that that the seriousness of the events involved, remembering that a rear-naked choke can be fatal.

“The juvenile not only showed profound disrespect for the physical integrity of the teacher, but also for the entire school system, acting in a tone of ridicule and defiance towards the teacher as if they were holding a parade,” the ruling states.

The TRP also states that the minor lives with his 10-year-old sister at his paternal grandmother’s house because his parents are in prison, adding that the grandmother “has neither authority over the minor nor the ability to impose rules on him.”

In the absence of family support for a culture of responsibility, the TRP concluded that the measure of internment “appears to be the only measure that can still be hoped for to teach the juvenile responsible social inclusion.”

A few days after the events at the Siege School, the Public School Teachers’ Movement organized a human cordon in front of the school to protest against violence inside schools.

At the time, those responsible for the movement said that this was the third episode of violence against teachers and educators in this school group by students and guardians since the beginning of the current school year.