The case took place at the Fonte Coberta school, in Cinfães. The student’s mother accuses the school of treating the case as “a joke”. The cluster of schools guarantees that it acted promptly and opened an internal investigation. The case must continue in court.
The Souselo School Group, in Cinfães, opened an internal investigation to find out in what situation a student at the Fonte Coberta school lost the tips of two fingers.
“The management was aware of the situation (which occurred on Monday) and opened an internal investigation to investigate the facts”, stated Carlos Silveira, adding that “the insurance policies were activated the very next day”.
The situation was reported by Nivia Estevam, who on the social network Instagram introduces herself as “mother of the nine-year-old child who had her fingertips amputated at school in Portugal”, in the municipality of Cinfães, district of Viseu.
“Two children closed the door on my son’s fingers” when he went to the bathroom, preventing him “from going out and asking for help”said Nivia Estevam, adding that the boy “he lost a lot of blood and had to crawl under the door with his fingers already amputated”.
The boy was underwent three hours of surgery at Hospital de São João, in Portoand will be left “with physical and psychological consequences”, he stated, asking for legal help to face the moment he is experiencing.
Episodes of violence had already occurred, the school was devalued
According to Nivia Estevam, Monday’s episode happened after having already done other complaints regarding “hair pulling, kicking and hanging”given that “no action was taken by the school”. The mother criticized the fact that, on Monday, the school did not call the PSP, did not explain the seriousness of the situation (which she only realized when she was already in the ambulance) and that the employees had cleaned “the entire area” of the incident.
“The school is treating this like a joke gone wrong”, he lamented.
Carlos Silveira declined to give further clarification on what happened on Monday, as the internal investigationbut guaranteed that “help was called promptly” and the school developed appropriate procedures.
“There is no PSP in Cinfães, only GNR. When INEM (National Institute of Medical Emergency) is called, if it considers it to be a serious situation, it automatically contacts the security forces”, he explained.
Lawyers ready to help with the process
Nivia Estevam’s cry for help was heard and a group of 15 lawyers has already made itself available to handle the process.
“We will proceed with the complaint to the Public Ministry and we will deal with the administrative process, the school’s civil liability in terms of surveillance and the civil process”, lawyer Catarina Zuccaro revealed to Lusa.
Regarding the criminal issue, lawyers will study what can be done, because “those involved are minors”, but they will have to be held responsiblehe added.”
We are 15 lawyers who will act. Each nucleus will have a part: criminal, administrative and civil”, said Catarina Zuccaro.
