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)