Spotted this item in NST today.
I think the warden went overboard and should be boarded out.
This form of extreme punishment should no longer be tolerated in a modern society.
The students enduring their punishment in the muddy pond. — Picture courtesy of Borneo Post
KUCHING: Two hundred schoolgirls of a boarding school were forced to squat, neck-deep, in a murky pond after a used sanitary pad was found in a toilet bowl.
The girls were in the pond for an hour during heavy rain while the warden, who meted out the punishment, stood under an umbrella to supervise the punishment.
The punishment, which was described as “improper”, is being investigated by the Education Ministry.
The shocking event at SMK Bawang Assan was captured on camera by the school’s parent-teacher association chairman Jimmy Kiu at 5pm on Wednesday.
Seeing Kiu taking photographs, the warden ordered the girls out of the pond.
By then, several of them complained of itchiness and rashes. Several were also reportedly ill after the incident.
Kiu claimed none of the school officials came to check the situation despite these complaints.
Most of the 500 students in Form One to Five are from the interior areas of Sungei Pasin, Batang Lassa, Nanga Singat, Sungei Lengang, Sungei Belangan and Tanjung Bekakap.
The students from the co-ed school go home on weekends.
“This kind of punishment is inhumane. And it is all over a used sanitary pad in a toilet bowl,” Kiu said.
“The water in the pond is dirty as waste from the canteen flows straight into it.”
A school official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the warden decided to punish all the female students after no one owned up to leaving the used pad in the toilet bowl.
“I think the warden was angry as it is expensive to fix a clogged toilet,” Kiu said.
Sarawak Teachers’ Union president William Ghani Bina expressed his uneasiness with the disciplinary measure applied by the warden.
“The warden’s intentions may have been good, but she should have followed the guidelines on disciplining students,” William said.
“Teachers are humans, too. This warden may have gone overboard in instilling discipline.”
William did not, however, put all the blame on the warden.
He said the student concerned should also take responsibility.
“This incident would not have occurred if school regulations were followed. There are proper bins to dispose of used sanitary pads.”
Sibu deputy police chief Superintendent Zamani Hamdan said they had yet to receive any report over the incident.
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