Dozens of students in NTT seminary school forced to eat human feces by seniors as ‘punishment’

Following reports of more than 70 students at a seminary junior high school in Maumere, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) being forced to eat human feces as a punishment by two senior students last week, the school’s principal yesterday responded to the controversy and claimed that the students merely “touched” the feces-holding spoon with their lips or tongue. 

“The use of the term ‘eat’ by a number of media outlets in reporting this incident is not accurate, because what truly happened is that a senior student brought a spoon containing feces to the lips or tongue of the students in seventh grade,” Pastor Deodatus Du’u, who is principal of the school said, as quoted by Kompas. 

The incident reportedly took place last Wednesday at the Bunda Segala Bangsa (BSB) seminary junior high school. There were 77 out of 89 students from the seventh grade who were allegedly subjected to the “punishment.”

One of the students told Kompas that the incident began after they returned to the school’s dormitory for an afternoon rest after lunch. When they arrived, a senior student said they’d found human feces inside an empty cupboard. All of the students were then called over, and the seniors asked them who placed the feces there. 

As no one came forward to admit having done so, the senior then scooped the human feces with a spoon and allegedly “fed” it to the junior students as punishment, who accepted the mistreatment out of fear. 

“We accepted it. It was disgusting, but we cannot fight back,” the student, who wished to remain anonymous, told Kompas yesterday.

The incident only came to light after the parent of one of the students brought it up on a WhatsApp group handled by the school’s public relations officer, presumably after one of the victims decided to tell his parents. 

The parent of one of the students, identified as Martinus, said he has decided to move his child to a different school after this incident. 

While we’re pretty sure that the students having merely “touched” those spoons are not better in any way, at least Deodatus said that two senior students were consequently expelled from BSB. In addition, he said the seventh grade students will be provided with guidance to help them recover from the traumatizing incident.

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