Teacher orders pupils to whip nine-year old

Teacher orders pupils to whip nine-year old

Though shock of the tragic killing of a student at the Public
Administration Institute (STPDN) still remains, students are
still being beaten in Indonesian schools.

In the latest violence, a teacher from Remban State Elementary
School in South Sumatra allegedly ordered classmates of a nine-
year-old boy to take turns beating the child with a whip over the
weekend.

The teacher, identified as Sa, 27, reportedly ordered the
attack because he considered the child, Alan Anarki, to be
performing poorly in mathematics.

Though Alan suffered serious injuries and was vomiting from
the pain, the boy's father, Ahsan, said Monday that he had been
forced to remove his son from the local community health center
immediately after the incident because he could not pay the
medical expenses.

It is not the first time Sa has been accused of beating
children.

School principal Asman said Sa, who had been teaching at the
school for the last five years, had been involved in two previous
attacks on his students.

"But we didn't have enough courage at the time to take action
against him, on the grounds that he is a relative of a powerful
family in the subdistrict."

Asman said Sa had been suspended indefinitely, pending the
results of an investigation by the Musri Rawas regency education
office.

Ahsan said he was seeking financial aid from the local
administration for his son's care.

Local education office head Syafaruddin confirmed it would
investigate the beating to ensure the case, which had comparisons
to the STPDN tragedy, would not be repeated.

Last August, STPDN student Wahyu Hidayat was beaten to death
by his fellow students for failing to attend a ceremony. He
instead went home to visit his parents. The case highlighted a
culture of violence within the school. Antara