An elementary school teacher in Cempedak Lobang village, North Sumatra, appears to have escaped severe punishment, despite forcing one of her students to engage in a revolting punishment that could have easily endangered his health.
Last week, the parents of a student, identified by his initials MB, complained about their kid’s teacher, a woman with the initials RM, who subjected their son to needlessly vile corporal punishment simply because he didn’t bring his homework to school.
“My son was told to lick the toilet 12 times. But after four licks, he vomited,” said SH, MB’s mother, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.
(Considering the state of the toilet as shown in the picture above, it’s surprising that MB managed to get in any licks before throwing up…)
SH added that they would have found it acceptable if RM had made their son clean the toilet but said the teacher’s punishment went way too far.
“My husband stormed into the school to meet with the teacher. I’m angry, upset. How are there no other punishments?” she said.
The regency’s education board confirmed the incident took place and that they had sanctioned the teacher, but the “sanction” seems an incredibly lenient one, considering what she put her student through.
“Based on our investigation, the teacher in question punished the student for not doing his work. We have sanctioned RM by transferring her to a public elementary school in Tebing Tinggi,” said Sergei Bedagai Regency Education Board Head Joni Walker Manik, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.
“She (RM) is human, she can make mistakes. But we’re not defending her. We are counseling her and gave her a sanction for her actions.”
Over the past couple of years alone, there have been several disturbing instances of teachers giving cruel and unusual punishments for little children, such as a teacher who roughed up a kindergartener and another who forcibly cut off her student’s hair as punishment. Between these and cases in which students use violence against their teachers, such as a junior high schooler who recently hit his teacher with a chair after she told him to put away his phone, some would say there’s a disturbing culture of violence in Indonesia’s schools.
