Social media reactions to video of Ajman teacher slapping student

Dubai: Emirati singer Ahlam vowed on her Instagram account to hire a lawyer to defend the boy seen being beaten by a teacher in a video that went viral in the UAE.

Many people took to social media to express their feelings about a video of a teacher slapping a student in a public school in Ajman.

An Arabic hashtag that translates to “teacher hits student” was trending on UAE Twitter on Wednesday, with more than 3,000 tweets — mostly in Arabic — by 2pm.

The renowned Emirati singer, whose full name is Ahlam Al Shamsi, condemned the teacher’s actions and quipped that if the teacher’s wife was giving him a hard time or had beaten him in the morning, it does not give him the right to take it out on the student.

Tweeps had different opinions of the incident.

Twitter user @uularau tweeted in Arabic that any teacher who is incapable of forming a relationship with his students does not deserve to stay in school.

Another tweep, @zmrar, said that violence breeds violence.

A mother, @UmGoldenmother, said that she suggests that the Ministry of Education fit each class with cameras to track students’ behaviour and interaction with the teacher.

@ThePharah tweeted “to those who said it’s fine to hit the boy, imagine if your brother or nephew in his shoes then lets talk about it” and in another, “so many ways to teach students to behave, any way but hitting them,”

Some other tweeps did not support the sharing of the video.

Twitter user @yl511 said that there is a system in place to protect the [rights of the] student who was hit ... but who will punish the student that took the video and defamed the student, adding that the student might be too embarrassed to go back to school and drop out.

Some people viewed the teacher’s actions as discipline, @_A_Khalifa, said what translates into “God be with the teacher, who is teaching or attempting to discipline students whose mothers are in the mall and fathers are at coffee shops”.

Many others said that this is not new, and others said this is nothing compared to the beatings they used to get as students.