College principal breaks up party by whacking students with a stick

Dr. Witt Yee Hlaing carries a big stick. Photo: Min Shu Shein / Facebook
Dr. Witt Yee Hlaing carries a big stick. Photo: Min Shu Shein / Facebook

The principal of a college in Myanmar’s Bago Region has been called out on Facebook for overreacting to her students partying on campus last week and beating several of them with a wooden stick.

In a post that has garnered more than 10,000 reactions and 2,000 comments, Min Shu Shein, a student at the Government Technical Institute in Letpadan Township, describes the confusion that led to the principal’s violent outburst.

He writes that the students had received permission from the college to hold a Thingyan party on March 15 from 8am to noon. However, since the party started an hour later than expected, they negotiated with a teacher to continue until 2pm.

“We assured him that we would take responsibility for any problems that might arise. We also worked hard to ensure that no problems arose,” he writes.

Nonetheless, school principal, Dr. Witt Yee Hlaing, shut off the party’s power source at 1pm. The students thought they were experiencing a blackout, so they hooked a party up to a generator they had brought in case of such an emergency.

“Angry and enraged by this, [Dr. Witt Yee Hlaing] got onto the dancefloor and hit people with a stick. We learned that [one student] was beaten badly,” Min Shu Shein writes in his post.

GTI principal Dr. Witt Yee Hlaing and her stick. Photo: Min Shu Shein / Facebook

“Students, regardless of whether they are hit or not, know that things like this shouldn’t happen,” his post continues. “There is never a reason to be brandishing a stick. We are not children or minors.”

While we have no explanation for the student’s implication that it’s acceptable to beat children with a stick, we do have what appears to be a response from Dr. Witt Yee Hlaing to his allegations. (We haven’t been able to independently verify that the comment was written by the principal, but it has been repeatedly cited as such in the comments under the original post.)

Son, why are you hiding the fact that you were all drinking? My major concerns were that the sun was really hot, that it was close to exam times. What would we do if all of you got sick? I tried to tell people that they had had enough fun and should wrap it up. I got ready to put away the Civils and ECs. Drunk, the EP, behind my back, used a generator to continue dancing. What kind of behavior is that? Think about what you would do in my position, son. It’s partially that I became angry and it is partially that I wanted to disperse the people being disruptively loud. If you decided to switch out of my class because of what I did, then the person who would be happiest would be me, and the person I would be most grateful to would be you, son.

Most of the commenters, somewhat surprisingly, appear to agree with Dr. Witt Yee Hlaing:

No school, no government, no international university gives permission to play disruptively loud music, play with water, or be rowdy. Keep thinking that what you did is OK because it is Myanmar, little brother. I really want you to use your brain. The teacher was trying to stop you all because she was worried you would all get heat stroke!! So stupid, also no use.
Are teachers supposed to abandon students to do whatever they want?
Are they no longer allowed to worry about you?
Are they no longer to pay attention to what you are doing?
This is during school hours.
Know your place, putting things like this online without respect for teachers. She disciplined you because you needed it.

This was the most anti-stick beating comment we could find:

When I look from the students’ side, they seem to be correct. When I look from the teacher’s side, she also seems to be correct. However, she shouldn’t have used a stick to hit them. And if a teacher disciplines you, you shouldn’t be upset.

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