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Amarynthos (Αμάρυνθος) is a municipality in Euboea, Greece. Population 7,356 (2001).

Amarynthos came gained national attention in Greece in October 2006, when the mother of a schoolgirl of Bulgarian descent pressed charges against four high school boys, sons of a priest, a police officer and a high school professor, for raping her daughter in the school's toilets, whilst the attack was allegedly filmed by female classmates using a mobile phone.^[1] The Greek Government has subsequently banned mobile telephones in school as a consequence of this incident.^[2]

The controversy began with the decision of headteacher to suspend the four boys for five days (a decision described by the Greek education ministry as shockingly lenient), as well as also suspending the girl. Education Minister Marietta Yiannakou ordered the ministry to investigate whether the decision by the school's teachers' council was legal, and the girl and her mother were received by Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Christodoulos, with the latter citing the Church's solidarity towards the family.^[3] This was followed by an anti-racist protest march, with mostly anarchist participants. The protesters vandalised a monument in honour of the people of Amarynthos massacred by communist partisans, during the Greek Civil War. This grew the people of the village angry, and violence soon erupted. The villagers attacked the protesters with sticks and pick-axes, and many had to receive medical care.^[4]

1. ^ New probe in teen rape case - e-Kathimerini, 11/1/2006
2. ^ Greece bans mobiles in school - BBC, 8/12/2006
3. ^ Athens News Agency - Greek leadership expresses revulsion over Amarynthos incident
4. ^ Eleftherotypia on the incident - Eleftherotypia 9/12/2006

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