Pupils charged over school attack

The teacher was humiliated by pupils

Six Polish high school students have been charged with attacking a teacher in a case that shocked the country.

The teenagers were expelled from the school in Torun in September, after the Polish TV aired a video that showed them humiliating the teacher in class.

The video sparked a nationwide debate on how youth are being brought up in post-communist Poland.

The five boys and a girl, aged 18 to 19, each face up to three years in prison, if convicted.

"The charges range from using violence against the teacher to insulting him," Judyta Glowacka, a spokeswoman for Torun prosecutors, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

No date has been set for the trial to open.

The video - by one of the pupils - showed the sustained humiliation of the teacher by most of the class during an English lesson at the Torun Construction High School.

The petrified, passive schoolmaster - who's now left the school - had a karate kick aimed at his body and a rubbish bin tipped over his head.

In one part of the tape, some pupils were seen twisting his arms and making obscene gestures in his face.

It is still not clear exactly how the tape found its way into the hands of the state TV station, turning a local tale of a terrorised teacher into a national scandal.