The incident occurred on Tuesday, when a young English teacher from the nearby Negev University commented to one of the four that he should consider studying more intensively. The boy, a 10th-grader, began hitting the teacher. While the latter was defending himself against the onslaught, another three students began hitting and punching him as well. The victim was finally rescued by other teachers.
Deputy Mayor Rubik Denilovitz, who also serves as the city councilman responsible for education in the city, immediately ordered the permanent expulsion of the four students from the city school system. The four, who were charged criminally in the municipal juvenile court on Wednesday, the day after the incident, will be placed in a special institution.
"I'm not willing to simply pass over the fact that four students wantonly beat a teacher who came to help them in a special class of only 20 students," Denilovitz later said in one of several media interviews he granted. "This is real red line that was crossed. I could have passed over it quietly - after all, Be'er Sheva is not one of the most violent places. But if we don't pay attention to incidents like this, then the situation will simply get worse. People think they have only rights - but the fact is that they also have obligations."
Asked on Israel Radio if this was the only way to deal with the problem, Denilovitz said, "There are two planes - one is to view it as a problem on all the levels: municipal, state, teachers, Education Ministry, special arrangements and comprehensive solutions, extra classes, making sure to fill the students' time, etc. But on another plane, we also need deterrence, plain and simple. In these exceptional cases, we must really put our foot down. What will the students say if they see these students returning to school in a week or two or three? They'll say that no one really cares. We can't allow that to happen."
Just the day after the incident in question, Be'er Sheva police arrested two pairs of students who were involved in stone-throwings on buses in the city. In at least one of the cases, the boys admitted that they had done it just for fun. The windshield of one of the buses was smashed, but no one was hurt.
Deputy Mayor Rubik Denilovitz, who also serves as the city councilman responsible for education in the city, immediately ordered the permanent expulsion of the four students from the city school system. The four, who were charged criminally in the municipal juvenile court on Wednesday, the day after the incident, will be placed in a special institution.
"I'm not willing to simply pass over the fact that four students wantonly beat a teacher who came to help them in a special class of only 20 students," Denilovitz later said in one of several media interviews he granted. "This is real red line that was crossed. I could have passed over it quietly - after all, Be'er Sheva is not one of the most violent places. But if we don't pay attention to incidents like this, then the situation will simply get worse. People think they have only rights - but the fact is that they also have obligations."
Asked on Israel Radio if this was the only way to deal with the problem, Denilovitz said, "There are two planes - one is to view it as a problem on all the levels: municipal, state, teachers, Education Ministry, special arrangements and comprehensive solutions, extra classes, making sure to fill the students' time, etc. But on another plane, we also need deterrence, plain and simple. In these exceptional cases, we must really put our foot down. What will the students say if they see these students returning to school in a week or two or three? They'll say that no one really cares. We can't allow that to happen."
Just the day after the incident in question, Be'er Sheva police arrested two pairs of students who were involved in stone-throwings on buses in the city. In at least one of the cases, the boys admitted that they had done it just for fun. The windshield of one of the buses was smashed, but no one was hurt.