Portugal's education inspectorate closes case of Brazilian student who lost parts of two fingers at school
The report concludes that the injury suffered by the boy, then 9, in Cinfães was accidental; his mother, who had described an attack by classmates, says she was stunned.
Translated from the Portuguese original by the Panorama newsroom. Read in Portuguese
Summary written by the Panorama newsroom from the sources listed below. Facts are attributed to the original publications.
The General Inspectorate of Education and Science (IGEC), a body of Portugal's Ministry of Education, concluded that the incident in which a Brazilian boy, then 9, lost parts of two fingers at a school in Cinfães, in the north of the country, a year ago was accidental, and closed the case. The result was published on Tuesday (10) by the Portuguese newspaper Público, according to g1.
According to the report, all indications are that the student himself pulled a bathroom door quickly and forcefully to hide from classmates he was playing with, and no unlawful act by any of those investigated or by third parties was found. The investigator in charge, Carlos Miranda, acknowledged only the possibility that the door's movement was also pushed by other students outside, although no witness confirmed this.
Speaking to Público, the child's mother said she could not accept the outcome and had lost hope of seeing anyone held accountable. "From victim, my son was turned into the guilty one," she said.
The incident took place on November 10, 2025, at an elementary school in the municipality, in the district of Viseu, about 130 km from Porto. At the time, the mother told g1 that two classmates followed the boy into the bathroom and shut the door on his fingers, said she believed he had been a victim of xenophobia and stated that her son had suffered other attacks at the school. According to her, the teacher initially said only that the boy had caught his finger in the door while playing with classmates.
The boy underwent surgery lasting about three hours and lost the tips of his index and middle fingers, which doctors were unable to reattach. After the incident, Portugal's commission for the protection of children and young people opened an investigation, and the local school group said it had launched an internal inquiry.