School principal’s car vandalized in Kirkuk after student expulsion

KIRKUK — Unidentified individuals vandalized a school principal’s car in the Benja Ali area of Kirkuk on Thursday after she expelled a student for repeated misconduct, a local source told 964media.

The vehicle, belonging to the principal of Falak al-Din Kakayi School, was damaged in front of the school building. No injuries were reported and no arrests had been made.

The incident is the latest in a series of assaults on educators across Iraq over the past year. In August 2025, police arrested several people in Baghdad after a teacher was attacked, while separate incidents in Karbala and Sadr City involved parents and relatives assaulting teachers and a school principal during working hours. In early 2024, multiple staff members were injured in an attack on a school in Samarra.

On Jan. 19, a group of lawmakers submitted a proposal to parliament calling for stricter legal protections for educational staff. The draft bill would allow the Ministry of Education or relevant directorates to file criminal complaints on behalf of teachers and classify verbal or physical assaults against them as “an assault on the prestige of the state and public office.” It also calls for a zero-tolerance policy and involvement of community police in handling such cases, shifting the burden of filing complaints from individual educators to state institutions.