VIDEO: Turkish principal wipes blackboard with student’s head

ISTANBUL

The principal of a middle school in Ankara wiped the blackboard of a classroom with a student’s head as punishment for not having cleaned the board earlier, according to a video secretly recorded by another pupil in the class.“Didn’t I tell you to erase the board? Why didn’t you?” principal Süleyman Yiğit can be heard saying, while first yanking the unidentified student by his ear and then wiping off the board with his head.Yiğit was recently appointed principal to the school from an İmam Hatip religious high school where he was vice principal.Yiğit previously received media attention on March 12, when he announced on the school’s website that two prayer rooms had been opened on campus.Opening mosques in schools is a hot issue of debate in Turkey, especially with recent incidents in Istanbul and the western province of İzmir where students petitioned for the construction of Buddhist and Jedi temples, respectively, after a series of mosques were constructed on their campuses by rectors who stressed “huge demand.”