Corporal punishment in schools is never the answer, but one school in Indonesia — where the number of child smokers has continued to rise in recent years — says it could be justified if it forces children to butt out.
Twenty students at an Islamic school in Sukabumi Regency, West Java were recently forced to eat tobacco as a punishment for smoking on school grounds. They weren’t made to chew tobacco as one would recreationally either — one of the students said the punishment caused extreme physical reactions in his classmates.
“We were caught smoking, and then we were all punished and made to smoke the tobacco. And then we were forced to eat the tobacco until we puked,” said one grade 9 student, identified by his initials EG, as quoted by local news website SukabumiUpdate.
One of the students, according to reports, had to be taken to a clinic for nicotine poisoning, though he has fully recovered.
The parents of the students were understandably outraged at first by the extreme punishment. They all went to the school yesterday to demand an apology, at the very least.
But today, after a discussion with the school, the parents ended up apologizing for their children smoking on school grounds in the first place.
“We accept the punishment given. The fault is ours, our children are naughty so it’s understandable that the school punished them,” one mother, Yeni, told SukabumiUpdate.
Arya, a teacher at the school, said they were forced to take extraordinary action against the students, who he said have never been able to behave despite previous stern punishments.
“They like to get into brawls, are often caught smoking and are often late to school,” he said.
“Every year we do the same treatment. If a student is caught smoking then we will force them to smoke until they regret it. And this treatment works.”
While the school may think that their “treatment” works, nicotine poisoning can cause serious health complications, such as nausea, vomiting, and arrhythmia. It also tends to be more dangerous for children than adults as their smaller bodies are less equipped to handle nicotine exposure.
