Basque woman gets three-year jail term for hitting teacher

On a normal school day, in February 2009, María Soledad E. H. went to the institute where her young daughter studies to give her a chocolate egg. When the mother arrived at the school to hand over the gift, the girl's teacher informed her that what she was doing was against school rules and that she could not be permitted into the building.

María Soledad E. H. responded by hitting and kicking the teacher several times, pulling her hair and insulting her, causing her to fall. The teacher was forced to take two months off after the incident. Two-and-a-half years later, a Bilbao court has handed down a severe sentence: two years and a day in prison for the crime of an attack against authority and one year and three months for causing injury, together with damages of 5,089 euros.

The sentence means that María Soledad E. H. will go to jail, given that the jail term is greater than two years and she also has a criminal record. The magistrate presiding the case based his decision on witness testimony and rejected the arguments of the defense that María Soledad E. H. did not know the woman she hit was a teacher because her white coat was hidden beneath another garment.

The ruling can be appealed in the provincial High Court of Bizkaia.