Pond squat issue: Settled, all is forgiven

The Star

KUCHING: 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.

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.