An Athens first-instance court prosecutor has ordered a preliminary inquiry into charges by 285 alumni of Arsakeia Schools, a complex of historic private schools in Athens, alleging sexual harrassment and other forms of abuse by teachers.
The inquiry was initiated by the Schools’ managing board, Filekpedeftiki Eteria, and its president George Babhiniotis.
In a letter to the managers, the alumni who had graduated from the prestigious private school between 1994 and 2018 said that they knew of and had been informed of sexual, emotional or verbal abuse of students by specific teachers of both genders.
They also criticised a “chronic mentality of some people” and condemned the perpetrators or those responsible persons who covered up, as they said, such incidents.
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“The administration should have the courage to provide explanations for some of their decisions that proved to be faulty,” they said.
The case follows a raft of other sexual abuse allegations in Greece which prompted Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to announce that laws would be toughened to protect sexual abuse victims and protect minors.