The dust has settled over the infamous "pond squat" issue and SMK Bawang Assan school warden Wee Yim Pien has been forgiven.
She has also apologised to the families for forcing some 170 girl boarders into a fishpond last week.
Wee, 27, who is also the schools' English teacher, with a Master's degree, had meted out the punishment over repeated dumping of sanitary pads in the school's toilet bowls.
The school’s parent-teacher association chairman Jimmy Kiu said: "Everybody has forgiven her."
He added that the parents and the students wanted the teacher to stay.
"We do not want the students to suffer as the PMR examination is coming.
“The incident is settled in good faith.It is hoped that there is no more a repetition,” Kiu said in a telephone interview on Thursday.
This followed a meeting attended by Kiu, Wee, school principal Kandon Ngadi, Sibu divisional education officer Charles Tiong. parents and Deputy Education Minister Datuk Noh Omar’s special representative Shashim Shah on Wednesday.
An emotional Wee was seen hugging some of the parents and shook hands with others as the episode came to an end.
Kiu said it would be up to the state Education Department to decide whether action should be taken against Wee. (Masih tak puas hati kot)
Shashim said the department’s report on the investigation into the incident had been sumbitted to the Education Ministry, which would decide if any action would be taken against Wee.
Asked if Wee would continue as the warden, Kiu declined to comment, saying that this was the school’s administrative matter. The school has more than 500 students, including some 300 borders.
An earlier report by the same newspaper
1. Teacher in ‘pond squat’ case not suspended
KUCHING: The SMK Bawang Assan warden who forced 200 schoolgirls to squat in a pond as a form of punishment is not under suspension.
State education director Rabiah Johari clarified that Wee Yim Pien, also the school’s English teacher, had not gone on leave as reported.
“She is back teaching at the school,” she told reporters after receiving anti-bullying posters for schools. “A police report has not been lodged.”
Rabiah said the department would decide on the next course of action when the probe was completed. She said the department did not condone what Wee had done but pointed out that teachers needed to take disciplinary action against errant students.
“We don’t want teachers to not discipline students as this will lead to social problems. In a case like this, we do not look only at the teacher’s actions but also whether she was feeling pressured or stressed.
“After all, according to reports she had been trying for three years to get the students to dispose sanitary pads properly and not clog the toilets,” she said.
The Sarawak Teachers Union (STU) has come out in support of its members accused of meting out harsh punishment on students.
Its president William Gani Bina noted that teachers and school heads were helpless as they could not reply to the accusations thrown at them in public.
“No teacher or school head who is in the right frame of mind would mete out excessive punishments,” he said adding that student indiscipline was on the rise.
He said there were an increasing number of students who have total disregard for school authority, and disobeying orders and directives.
Meanwhile the school’s parent-teacher association chairman Jimmy Kiu said Wee had apologised to the parents in a meeting yesterday.
Following the apology, he said the parents withdrew their demand (wow, depa bayaq gaji kot)for Wee to be transferred out.
2. Ministry to probe squatting incident
The Education Ministry will carry out a thorough investigation into a claim that 200 girl boarders in Sarawak were forced into a fish pond as punishment because one of them left a sanitary towel in a toilet bowl.
Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said an investigation was under way to establish what actually happened.
It was reported that the girls from a secondary school in Sibu were forced to squat in the murky fish pond for an hour.
The Form One to Form Five students were allegedly forced into the pond inside the school compound from 4pm on Wednesday by a woman warden.
The warden watched over them with an umbrella as it was raining.
“We do not want to point fingers at anyone now but we will take action against those who are wrong,” Hishammuddin told reporters after attending the convocation of 500 teachers at the Teachers Training Institute here yesterday.
In Kuching, Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Fatimah Abdullah said the case should be brought to the school’s disciplinary board and a report handed over to the state education department.
Fatimah said any punishment meted out must be in accordance with the school’s rules and regulations.
“But I’m sure the punishment for those caught throwing a sanitary pad into the toilet bowl is not asking them to squat in a pond.”
The school's parent-teacher association chairman Jimmy Kiu who runs the school canteen, witnessed the incident and contacted a local daily to expose the incident.
Describing the punishment as “harsh”, Kiu said he would speak to the parents before deciding on the next course of action. (Ini bahasa orang nak bakar lemang sampai rentung)
