Ministry seeks tougher penalties for violence against teachers

ANKARA

The Education Ministry will soon bring an amendment to the parliamentary agenda, aiming to increase penalties for violence against educators in schools by fifty percent, Minister Yusuf Tekin has announced.

His remark came after the killing of a school principal by an expelled student Istanbul’s Eyüpsultan district caused outrage both in public and the education community.

"Following the annulment of the Teacher Profession Law by the Constitutional Court, our ministry initiated a new preparatory phase in the legislative process. This process is ongoing. In the draft of the law, we have included provisions regarding acts containing violence against teachers and educational staff," Tekin told education union representatives during a meeting on May 9 in the capital Ankara.

"We proposed that the penalties prescribed in the criminal law for such acts be increased by fifty percent. We demanded that the postponement of imprisonment for those who commit these acts be prevented."

He also expressed the ministry’s request that these acts be considered grounds for immediate arrest, “thereby closing the path for those who commit these acts to be tried without detention."

"As a state, as a nation, we must stand firmly and respond most severely to all forms of violence. As the ministry, we will not give up on pursuing the necessary punishment for those involved in such acts of brutality and violence."

The teenager, identified only as Y.K., was studying at a private high school in Eyüpsultan when he was expelled in December 2023 following conflicts with his teacher and the principal, İbrahim Oktugan.

Five months after his expulsion, Y.K. returned to the school and entered Oktugan's room, where he shot the principal five times with a firearm he had brought with him, inflicting serious injuries.

Y.K., reportedly of Iraqi origin and holding Turkish citizenship, fled the scene following the shooting. Despite medical interventions, Oktugan succumbed to his injuries after being transported to the hospital.