Three students were taken to a hospital after officials at a girls’ technical school in Shahr-e Rey south of Tehran allegedly assaulted pupils during searches for mobile phones, according to videos and eyewitness accounts sent to Iran International.
Tehran Province’s education chief Yousef Baharloo said tensions at the school erupted on Wednesday after staff confiscated several students’ phones, adding that he had received no reports of physical injury to the students.
But eyewitnesses drew a different picture.
“They grabbed us by the collars in groups when we entered the school and dragged us inside. They forced us to kneel and threw our belongings on the ground. They touched our private parts and checked our bodies completely,” one student said.
“On the pretext of taking mobile phones and picking on us for our hijabs, they went after the students. They even sent the Special Unit and closed the school gate,” another eye witness said, referring to security forces.
Videos and images shared with Iran International appeared to show emergency personnel and ambulances at the school following the altercation.
The incident, which occurred on Tuesday, raised fresh concerns about student safety and oversight by Iran’s Education Ministry.
Families gathered outside the school on Wednesday in protest, but the principal was not present. Security forces were later deployed around the site.
"The school principal even criticized the students' hairstyles and appearance, and during inspections, he treated them with very vulgar language and violent behavior,” a third eyewitness said, describing the original altercation.
"The principal would beat the students and throw their phones at them," the eyewitness added. "He even smashed the camera of one of the students, whose major was photography, against the wall."
The case follows earlier incidents this year, including the suicide of a 12-year-old student in Shiraz in October and the death of a 14-year-old in Zanjan in August after punishment at school, which have intensified concern about violence and a lack of accountability in Iran’s education system.
