Italy sentences teacher who cut pupil's tongue

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian teacher who cut an unruly 7-year-old pupil's tongue with scissors was given a two month suspended sentence and fined more than 7,000 euros ($10,000) by a Milan court Tuesday, lawyers said.

But the court found teacher Rosa Sciliberto did not intentionally slice the pupil's tongue to silence him -- as police and prosecutors had argued.

"The sentence shocks me," prosecutor Marco Ghezzi told Italian media. "I'm waiting to read the motivations and if I'm not convinced, I'll appeal."

The defense had argued that the headline-grabbing tongue- cutting in February was just an accident, partly the fault of the hyperactive child.

The child needed to go to hospital for five stitches.

Sciliberto has since been removed from her elementary school job in Milan, but a lawyer at the firm handling her case said she intends to return to teaching some day.

(Writing by Phil Stewart)