MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s Supreme Court has for the first time ordered a school to compensate a child for bullying by classmates, ruling that a teacher encouraged the harassment.
The private school and the teacher have been ordered to pay 550,000 pesos ($36,500) to the family of the 7-year-old for the costs of the trial, tuition for the 2009-10 school year and medical and psychological treatment.
Known as the Universal Truth and Science Institute, the school is in Metepec, a town in Mexico state, which adjoins Mexico City.
The court found the teacher urged her students to discriminate against and mistreat the child. In a statement, the court said that the teacher “not only did nothing to prevent abuse,” but “came to participate in physical and psychological aggression toward the child.”