A religious studies teacher in East Lombok was reported to the police for giving one of his students a time-out punishment. According to reports from local media, the student is the son of a legislative council member in the region.
“It’s true, my wife reported the matter to the police, she couldn’t accept that her child was treated this way,” Mahrus, who is a member of East Lombok’s Regional Legislative Council (DPRD), told Kompas.com on Tuesday.
Local media reported that the alleged punishment happened last week, in which the child, who is identified by his initials AH, was given a time-out by the teacher for his behavior.
“I was teaching my students when one of them came in crying, telling me that he was hit by the child of the council member, and so I called [AH] in to give him a time-out punishment,” Kasri, the religious studies teacher, told Kompas.com.
Local media reported the punishment as “setrap,” which usually means time-out. However, the report also suggests that Kasri may have lightly slapped or hit AH as he was doing so.
AH reportedly told his parents what had happened, and his mother, identified as Endang Srihartuti, reacted by going to the school to berate Kasri, allegedly throwing insults and even hitting him.
“The mother suddenly came and was all angry, she was speaking rudely, and calling me a dog, [she] also hit me,” Kasri said.
Another teacher eventually stepped in to calm her down, and while the school principal reportedly tried to mediate the two, Endang still couldn’t accept how her child was treated.
According to Mahrus, Endang also said that Kasri had hit her child while giving out the time-out punishment. He added that his wife decided to file a police report after Kasri only came by once to their house to apologize.
“In my opinion, it shouldn’t just be a one-time visit. He also came by when my wife wasn’t home, I think there should be a lot of meetings to reach an agreement,” Mahrus said.
Kasri also said that the police had already asked for his statement, and that authorities advised them to settle the issue out of court.
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