[custom_adv] A schoolteacher whose body, face and tongue are covered in tattoos and who has had the whites of his eyes surgically turned black said he was prevented from teaching at a French kindergarten after a parent complained he scared their child. [custom_adv] But the teacher, Sylvain Helaine, 35, still teaches children from the age of 6 up and said that after an initial shock when they see him for the first time, his pupils see past his appearance. [custom_adv] “All of my students and their parents were always cool with me because basically they knew me,” said Helaine, who estimated he has spent around 460 hours under the tattooists’ needle.“It’s only when people see me from far away that they can assume the worst.” [custom_adv] He said last year he was teaching kindergarten at the Docteur Morere Elementary School in Palaiseau, a suburb of Paris, when the parents of a 3-year-old child complained to education authorities. They said their son, who was not taught by Helaine, had nightmares after seeing him. [custom_adv] A couple of months later, the school authorities informed him he would no longer teach kindergarten children, he said. “I think the decision they took was quite sad,” said Helaine.A spokesman for the local education authority said an agreement was reached with Helaine to move him away from teaching kindergarten.
