Whole class suspended

Whole class suspended

BENGKULU, Bengkulu (JP): Lisam Tantawi, the principal of
Argamakmur High School, suspended for a week a whole class of 39
students after they went, without his permission, to pay their
last respects to a schoolmate who died last week.

Parents and students alike protested the suspension, the
Antara news agency reported Monday.

"We meant well, we wished to express our condolences, why did
the principal forbid us to do it?" said Agus, one of the
students.

Tantawi, however, said the students could have just appointed
one or two students to represent them, "rather than the whole
bunch of them leaving the school during school hours".

Despite the fact that no teachers gave them any lessons, Agus
and his friends of the II C class continued going to school.

Asmara Arief, one of the students' parents, said the
punishment was undue. "The principal could have told the students
to clean the school yards before school hours as punishment,"
Asmara said. "Now, our children can't get any lessons, but we
parents still have to pay the school fees." (swe)