Pages and accounts on social media circulated a photograph claimed to document a second-grade child being beaten inside the Northern Tal Shghaib school in the Aleppo countryside.
The fact-checking team verified the claim by contacting the media office of the Aleppo education directorate, which explained that an incident did take place inside the school: the teacher held the pupil by the hand after he misbehaved in class, without beating him. It added that the child's father went to the school, the teacher apologised and signed an undertaking not to repeat the behaviour, while the education directorate is moving to issue her a warning and take action against her.
Digitally tracing the attached photograph showed that it has been online since 2022 and relates to an abuse incident inside a social care home in Khamis Mushait in the Asir region of Saudi Arabia, and has no connection to the incident referred to in the claim.
Why is this claim misleading?
Old photo out of context: Linking a school incident in the Aleppo countryside to a photograph unrelated to it in both time and place makes the claim misleading.
