Girls punished for repeatedly clogging up toilet
SIBU: The female teacher who had forced nearly 200 girls into a fish pond said she had meted out the punishment as the school's toilet bowls were repeatedly clogged by sanitary pads dumped into them.
Wee Yim Pien, the warden of SMK Bawang Assan, claimed that school prefects had to use their bare hands to pull the sanitary pads out of the toilet bowls whenever there was a blockage.
She said that some of the boarders had repeatedly in the past three years ignored her instructions to dump the sanitary pads into the dustbins provided outside the toilets.
“We also provide old newspapers for them to wrap the pads before disposal,” the warden told reporters after a meeting with state Urban Development and Tourism Minister Datuk Wong Soon Koh at the school on Saturday.
Wee, 27, an English teacher with a Masters degree, said that she had earlier warned the girls they would be sent to the fish pond if they did not stop their bad habit.
She intended to keep the 170 girls in the pond for five minutes but extended it to 30 minutes because they were “very chatty”.
Wee denied it was raining heavily when the girls were in the pond, saying that it was “only a drizzle that lasted for a short while”.
She refuted claims made by the school’s Parent-Teacher Association chairman Jimmy Kiu.
He had allegedly said that the pond water was dirty because of the waste from the canteen flowing into it and some of the girls had complained of rashes with a few of them falling sick after last Wednesday’s incident.
“We often draw water from the pond for washing. The school has also conducted obstacle courses there,” said Wee.
Wong, who is Bawang Assan assemblyman, said the school’s senior assistant Hilton Gundi had told him no wastewater was discharged into the pond as alleged by Kiu.
Wong said that the Sibu divisional education office had conducted an investigation into the incident and added it should be left to carry out the probe without any public pressure.
The case came to light over the weekend after Parent-Teacher Association chairman Jimmy Kiu took photographs of the incident and sent them to local newspapers to protest the harsh punishment.
Kiu, who also runs the school's catering operation, claimed it was raining heavily at the time, and some of the girls fell sick and later got rashes due to the dirty water, the New Straits Times said.
Some national teachers unions have protested Wee's action, saying it was unwarranted and amounted to abuse.
Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has promised an investigation into the case.
Sarawak education officials were not immediately available for comments Monday. Phone calls to the school went unanswered.
Wee Yim Pien, the warden of SMK Bawang Assan, claimed that school prefects had to use their bare hands to pull the sanitary pads out of the toilet bowls whenever there was a blockage.
She said that some of the boarders had repeatedly in the past three years ignored her instructions to dump the sanitary pads into the dustbins provided outside the toilets.
“We also provide old newspapers for them to wrap the pads before disposal,” the warden told reporters after a meeting with state Urban Development and Tourism Minister Datuk Wong Soon Koh at the school on Saturday.
Wee, 27, an English teacher with a Masters degree, said that she had earlier warned the girls they would be sent to the fish pond if they did not stop their bad habit.
She intended to keep the 170 girls in the pond for five minutes but extended it to 30 minutes because they were “very chatty”.
Wee denied it was raining heavily when the girls were in the pond, saying that it was “only a drizzle that lasted for a short while”.
She refuted claims made by the school’s Parent-Teacher Association chairman Jimmy Kiu.
He had allegedly said that the pond water was dirty because of the waste from the canteen flowing into it and some of the girls had complained of rashes with a few of them falling sick after last Wednesday’s incident.
“We often draw water from the pond for washing. The school has also conducted obstacle courses there,” said Wee.
Wong, who is Bawang Assan assemblyman, said the school’s senior assistant Hilton Gundi had told him no wastewater was discharged into the pond as alleged by Kiu.
Wong said that the Sibu divisional education office had conducted an investigation into the incident and added it should be left to carry out the probe without any public pressure.
The case came to light over the weekend after Parent-Teacher Association chairman Jimmy Kiu took photographs of the incident and sent them to local newspapers to protest the harsh punishment.
Kiu, who also runs the school's catering operation, claimed it was raining heavily at the time, and some of the girls fell sick and later got rashes due to the dirty water, the New Straits Times said.
Some national teachers unions have protested Wee's action, saying it was unwarranted and amounted to abuse.
Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has promised an investigation into the case.
Sarawak education officials were not immediately available for comments Monday. Phone calls to the school went unanswered.
now its all changed!
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