A 35-year-old mother of three children from Valletta was yesterday charged with threatening a school principal when she allegedly threw an umbrella at him after, she claimed, he made her daughter kneel in the courtyard all afternoon as a punishment.

Before magistrate Silvio Meli, Doris Azzopardi pleaded not guilty to threatening, offending and throwing an umbrella at the

school principal.

Defence lawyer Jose Herrera explained that Mrs Azzopardi approached the school principal after he told her seven-year-old daughter, attending the Valletta primary school, to kneel down in the courtyard as a form of punishment.

Dr Herrera told the court that Mrs Azzopardi had informed the principal at the beginning of the year that her daughter had problems with her knees.

He added that the school’s treatment was a form of physical abuse and magistrate Meli queried whether similar punishments were still being used in Maltese schools.

Magistrate Meli granted Mrs Azzopardi bail against a personal guarantee of Lm1,000.

Police inspector Pierre Micallef Grimaud prosecuted while Dr Jose Herrera and Dr Veronique Dalli appeared for Mrs Azzopardi.