Trial

On October 1st, 1998 13:30 h, I was teaching physics in year 4 of secondary education in a classroom with 25 pupils at College Blaucapel, Utrecht, Netherlands. blaucapel@wxs.nl(year 4 of a 6 years pre-university education 12-18 years Dutch school system) . The lights in the classroom were dimmed because I was demonstrating an experiment . I had connected an Ultrasonic Position Sensor (UPS) with an interface to a personal computer showing real time graphs of position versus time and velocity versus time simultaneously.

All over sudden I was watching a tiny red spot that was moving from left to right and back. I think I saw it coming back a second time from right to left. I immediately realized that it was a laserpointer because I had experience with laserpointers from another school .

I started to get really angry as I turned my head towards my suspected offender (there was one pupil that I immediately suspected). I was blinded by an intense bright red light. I have no emory left of the moments immediately after the attack. The first time I noticed this particular laserpointer the light was moving , but when it finally hit me in the eye it was standing still. The red light completely filled my vision and there was nothing else I could see apart from seeing RED. This final moment lasted just a second or maybe even less.

"Who is shining with a laserpointer?" Someone suggested that it was the red led of the UPS. I started blaming my offender, but he denied and complained about the false accusation. He suggested a bodysearch. I made an investigation of his case holder but as I could not find anything, I went back to my table. At the beginning of that lesson a boy from another class , who is living in my street had entered the classroom as I was having a talk with 4 boys, one of them G.P., the one who would attack me later. "You better watch out for him because he has a laserpointer" is what I recall him saying. At that time I did not notice whom he meant because I was busy to get the rest of the class inside the room (there was a change of classrooms because of the experiment and the fact that the physics room was available).

There had been lots of discussions between my offender and me in the recent past. Two weeks earlier he had threatened me saying "that I had to understand that his hands were itching". The complaints were about false accusations of him making trouble or too much noise in classroom, and he used to enter the room with his coat on, which is against the regulations of the school. Although I started to suspect G.P., I could not prove it. Although I stopped the lesson and asked the class who did it there was no reaction, until finally the bell rang and all pupils left the classroom . Two pupils stayed behind and whispered to me that it was G.P. with his wrist watch strap.

In the final police report the laser pointer could not be reconstructed. It had fallen apart in two parts. G.P. has used a seperate pair of batteries outside the laser pointer and connected it with electrical wire. The two parts of the laser were held together under his wrist watch."

As I went into the physics office next door I asked the teaching assistent to tell me where the room of the deputy headmaster was . As a new teacher I did not know my way around the school , but the teaching assistent made an internal telephone call and connected me with the deputy headmaster.

The next day (Friday oct 2^nd) I was on an excursion to Planetarium Artis in Amsterdam with another class (year 2). I remember that I was not feeling very well and that I tried to go into a dark niche of the museum to see if I had "after images". In the planetarium the boys of year two were having a good time while the girls went to the museum with another teacher. There had been complaints about the noise when someone started shining with a laserpointer on the ceiling where the stars were projected. The show was paused and there was a complaint about the noise, but not about the laser pointer, so I decided to go to them and asked: " who is it?" Finally the last one in the row whispered: "It's Johnny" {real name known to author}.

In the darkness of the planetarium I realized I was not feeling very well and I started to feel something, some sort of pain in my right eye. Back at school there was a small note from the deputy headmaster in my pigeon hole. From the parents of my offender it was known that he had admitted having a laserpointer. It was taken away by his father. I informed the deputy headmaster about the second laserpointer incident in the Planetarium, but I could not foresee that it would take another two weeks and three more times of questioning about this case before action was undertaken and Johnny ( 13 years old ) handded in this laserpointer, that had been given to him by his parents (!) as a souvenir from Spain.

At home I made an appointment with my family doctor as soon as possible, that was next Monday. (Oct 5^th). That same day, friday October 2nd, 1998 at 17:00h I went to the police office , but they refused to accept my declaration about the laserpointer accident. The police advised to wait and see what the doctor said and told me to come back at another office in case I really wanted to go on with it. That weekend I started to feel more pain in my right eye. There were short peaks with an interval of about 10 minutes that started to get stronger the next days. During the next days the "peaks "were becoming wider, that is they lasted longer and gradually there was this continuous burning pain in the back of my right eye .

On Monday the doctor thought it could do no harm and made a telephone call with a ophthalmologist in a hospital, asking about the risk's of a laserpointer. "Laserpointer? No damage to the eye" he answered while I was listening to the telephone call by an extra loudspeaker. "Can you see normal?", asked the doctor. I had not noticed any abnormalities I replied to my doctor. After a short discussion I received a referral to an ophthalmologist. When I tried to contact the ophthalmologist that I had been consulting the past twenty five years because of short-sightedness (myopia ) I discovered that he had retired and that I was never informed about it since my last visit may 1996. There was a possibility of an appointment with his successor in a hospital but not earlier than December 15^th , two months later, unless a special request from the family doctor was made.

Monday 4th of October 1998 , physics in class 4 with G.P. my offender. At the beginning of the lesson I referred to the laserpointer incident . G.P. started laughing and said , as if he had almost forgotten about it that he had already written his essay and that I might not know that all was cleared with the deputy headmaster because I was a new teacher. I handed over an enveloppe with a short letter for his parents to inform them that I held G.P.responsible for all the damage caused by his laser pointer light in my right eye. The letter was closed so he could not read it unless he opened it, and I asked him to leave, but he refused. He did not want to accept the letter, but finally took it and I repeated that he had to leave. It took about 5 minutes before he finally did, persuaded by some of his classmates. When he reached the door, he stopped and turned over to me, shouting: "God Damn It, Cancer Prick" Finally he smashed the door and left. It was the last time I ever saw G.P.

Tuesday the 6^th of October I went to the police head quarters in my town Utrecht. This time they took it serious . "How is it possible?" asked the police officer, when he finished the declaration, "that boy shines you in the eye with a laserpointer (legally forbidden since April 1998) and the acting head of school gives no other punishment than writing a thousand words essay about lasers? "

Several visits by the police were being made, and finally all the pupils of that particular schoolclass were questioned about the laser pointer incident.

At the police office they helped me in finding another eye doctor and an appointment was made for wednesday the 7th of October 1998. I was examined by two eye doctors and several investigations were being made, starting with measurements of the visus. "Do you have any complaints? " asked the doctor. I replied that I was feeling pain in miy right eye, which seemed to surprise them. The visus of th right eye turned out to be 0.63 (instead of 1). Looking with two eyes I had not noticed myself that I could see less sharp with my right eye. No detectable damage of the retina was found when they investigated the interior of my eye with a special light

My last visit to the docter was in january 99, when I was examined for the third time and again they assured me that there was no detectable damage to the retina, although my vision with the right eye was less then 1 (0.63 first visit, 0.8 nov 98). I decided to do a refraction at the optometrist from that same private eye clinic, the result was that the right eye could not reach a visus 1 anymore with any of the glasses. The optometrist told me that he had never seen anyone that could not be corrected to visus 1 . During my last visit to an eye doctor before the accident, in may 1996 there had been a small improvement in shortsightedness compared with the results from some years before.

My medical history from the past 25 years (visus 1 with both eyes, stable) was not included in the final report for the public prosecutor. It stated that the laser pointer was probably 2 mW, that no detectable damage was reported and that in general laserpointers are safe. It did mention my pain complaints and loss of "visus", but the docter said that from literature he did not know about any pain in the eye . There has been in article in the dutch journal of medicine about laserpointers, DUTCH JOURNAL OF MEDICINE (NTG 1998 142 (nr.36) pag. 1979 t/m 1982 (5 september 1998), . v. Norren, Vos, Keunen ) The laserpointer: no demonstrable danger to eyes "stating that not a single case of demonstrable eye damage has been described in the peer reviewed scientific literature. The eye doctor handed out a photocopy of the article, which I have read many times since then. It contains a lot of interesting facts about laserpointers.

In the mean time I ordered a similar laserpointer (infiniter 6, holomedia) at the Internet and sent it to the Institute Of Lasermedicin , University of Düsseldorf, Germany to be investigated. http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/WWW/MedFak/LaserMedizin. I received a message from that Institute that it was a class 3b laser , output P = 4.5 mW at 4.5 Volt. Other information was found at the internet site of the factory that makes these laser pointers, according to the factory P < 4 mW , class IIIA. There is a difference between the information from the factory and the findings from the laboratory. For a explanation of the difference between european standards (class 3b) and American standards (class IIIA) see:

Power P = 4.5 mW

3 LR44 batteries provide 3 hours of continuous "on" operation.

Wavelength l = 650nm

CIass 3B

Distance 500 meters/yards (?)

3"x0.75" 8x2 cm

0.8oz / 24g

HARD PLASTIC

PUSH BUTTON SWITCH

3 LR44 / 1 HR or 3 SR44 / 2 HRS

The intensity of the pain in my eye is fluctuating, some days it is rising and some days it is diminishing gradually . The first days after the incident I felt sharp pain at regular time intervals of approximately 10 minutes. This went over to a continuous pain in the back of my right eye, a feeling that is hard to describe but it is like a piece of sand in the eye, or the feeling you have after you have just been hit at your eye. Point your finger into your eye, and keep it there for a while , release and you will feel something not quite similar but it is your eye. Ever since the incident I have this pain.

In October 98 the general trend of the pain was rising. I remember that it seemed worse after a long night sleep and less terrible after a short night. There was some relief by taking a bath.

Fresh air , walking in the rain helped, but rooms full of smoke seemed to make it worse.

The most intense pain was in november, and with christmas 98 there was some improvement. During the following months the pain was going up and down both on a daily basis as on a monthly basis, I remember some bad weeks in may and june, and on holiday in july 99 I had some bad days but the fluctuations were on a shorter timescale . August was not so bad, although it was there . At the end of september I had a bad week again. In october 1999, one year later there were some bad weeks. The only time that I am not aware of the pain is when I am asleep, but when I wake up in the middle in the night I start feeling it again, just as I feel it every morning when I wake up. When I am busy with something and when the intensity is not near its maximum value I can forget about it for some 5 to ten minutes, but when it is worse this is impossible. This means that in one year I have been thinking about it at least a

A year has passed and nothing changed, fluctuating pain and reduced visus in that right eye.

The next years there was some improvement! One year after the accident the eyesight was measured 80% in the right eye, and after two years it was back to normal, 100% . The pain lasted for about 3,5 years! There was some small improvement in between, but there were times when it was just as bad as in the beginning. But 3,5 years after the accident it started to dminish significantly, until now, five years later I hardly feel it anymore, that is : it's still there, but let's say a hundred times less than it was during the first years. Sometimes I completely forget about it, but I must admit that still after 5 years it has not dissapeared comletely yet

Four weeks after I had started my job as a teacher of physics at College Blaucapel, Utrecht the laser pointer incident happened. College Blaucapel, Utrecht - Welkom!I had started enthusiastically on September 1st, 1998 and I could reach the school by bike in ten minutes and there seemed some opportunities for me because the former teacher had retired and I had just two colleagues physics teachers. At the moment of the incident my wife was ill at home for some months and I felt it was impossible for me to do do the same. As I was reaching a first week holiday starting october 16th, 1998 I hoped it would not last long, and because of all the information I received I thought it would last no more than a few weeks. I was reported ill from october the 16th , 1998 onwards. Both the headmaster and the deputy headmaster did not seem to take it very serious. I received several reports on laserpointer incidents at that school, but they did not seem very much aware of the danger involved, although by that time I was complaining about the pain in my eye. Nothing had happened about the laser pointer incident in planetarium Artis, and finally at a meeting with other teachers on october 12th, 1998 I declared that I would refuse to teach in that particular class unless action was undertaken against the laser pointer from Johnny. In the discussion it was questioned by the teacher especially appointed to have contact with the police if it really was illegal and if it really was a weapon. That night I was phoned by someone from school that Johnny had handed in his laser pointer.

In the case of G.P. who had hit me in my right eye the reaction of the school was astonishing. I was told that I had to make an end to this controversy, that I could never prove it, that it had happened coincedentally, that G.P. belonged to a very well respected family who could serve as an example for my family. In the staff room on friday the 9th of October, 1998 I met a few other colleagues and talked about what had happened. We had a regular meeting every friday at that hour and the last time we had received instructions that in case a pupil would abuse a teacher, the deputy headmaster should be informed so that that pupil would be expelled at least a day from school. Referring to my case, I had been abused four days after the assault and nothing had happened. Some other teachers that were present in the staffroom got involved and I did not notice that the deputy headmaster had appeared in the staff room. Tuesday the 12th of October (on my birthday) the deputy headmaster and the headmaster wanted to talk to me about the laserpointer incident. After some discussions they demanded my apologies for the conversation in the staffroom that friday. Several teachers had written letters to them expressing their concerns and I was to blame for giving an over exaggerated view. In case I did not want to apologise, I could expect serious problems, as they told me. In case I would disagree with their pedagogical handling of the case with the essay of 1000 words that G.P. had to write about the medical use of lasers I was adviced to contact the representative advisory board of the school. The firts point on the agenda, as the head master and deputy head master called it, was the return of G.P. in my lessons and they asked me to immediately inform him about his home work, which I never did. In fact I was determined not to teach him anything anymore. The result was that G.P dropped physics and took economics in stead, before I was reported ill. A meeting between me and the parents from G.P. was cancelled after my eye doctor adviced me to do so. There was a letter from them and from G.P., where he wites that he has not shone me in the face or in the eye on purpose. Later he would denie this when he declares at the police that this was dictated by his father and that he only pointed the "lightpen" (as he calls it) to my pants. Two weeks after the incident I was reported ill for my job, and I never went back to school until I lost my job after a year since I was on a one year contract that would have been changed to a permanent appointmet if it were continued. The first monday that I was ill at home my colleague physics teacher was on the phone, and asked me what to do with the assessment of class 5 who were working in a "test week". When I informed him that I was ill and would not do the assessment, he made an official complaint about me to the headmaster because of non-coöperation. It took two weeks to find a replacement teacher and there were no lessons. The replacement teacher could not do class five, and finally the former physics teacher who had retired did the job one more time. In December 1998 the school doctor adviced me to seek for psychological aid, and from january until june I visited a pschycho therapist paid by the school. When the job ended I ended the psychotherapy. The representative advisory board never answered my letters.No reaction what so ever from my colleagues, and 15 novenmber 1998 I decided to contact the pressmycase.htm

In november 98 I had no other contact with school than through several journalist who phoned me, the headmaster of the school and G.P or his parents. Finally the radio and television covered the case. The broad attention helped me a lot in getting more understanding for my postion, and gradually the school was moving in my direction. A ban on laser pointers was declared at school, in combination with firework. In the spring of 1999 I heard the deputy headmaster was overstrained. Finally G.P. was promoted to year 5.

I found another job for 50% parttime at another school, where all the physics teachers knew about the incident from an internet newsgroup on education. October 27, 1999 a serious laser pointer accident happens on my new school between two kids in the stairway, I will report about this later...

One year after the incident I received a letter from the public prosecuter. The case is dropped. Although they wrote that G.P. has shone me in the right eye with a laserpointer they dismiss the case because they cannot prove the damage to the eye.

I will not accept this and I have three months to make a complaint at the court of justice in Amsterdam. I have also started a civil procedure aginst G.P., my offender . Since the first week of october 1998 I claimed 50 000 dutch guilders compensation. A second opnion from another eye doctor has been requested recently. Renewed contact with police and justice.

discussion on the internet