A schoolboy was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday after one of his teachers beat him up badly and forced him to do 500 squats holding his ears as punishment.
On his way back home from school, the boy fainted on the road and was later rescued by his mother and taken to the hospital with severe pain in his legs and back.
The boy was punished for a one-day-old “crime” – that too was nothing more than playing juvenile pranks with a classmate.
Doctors said the 13-year-old boy had also gone through psychological trauma.
Md Panir Hossain, a seventh grader at Jurain Hajera High School in the capital’s Kodomtoli, told the Dhaka Tribune in his hospital bed: “Our friend Shahin does not like to take a bath. He was smelling bad and some of us were making fun of him at tiffin on Saturday. Shahin took the fun seriously and told his uncle.”
The next day, Shahin’s uncle, along with some friends who are also former students of the school, came and complained against Panir and his friends Nahid and Arif.
“Around 2:20pm, during Islamic studies class, our head teacher Alfaj Hussain called us to his office,” Panir said.
The head teacher beat them up badly with bare hands and then, thinking that it was not enough, asked them to do 500 squats holding their ears.
Squats holding ears is a traditional form of mild punishment that teachers in many parts of the world make students do. But 500 squats easily qualifies as way over what is normal.
“It was too hard for us. After doing around 80, I fell on the ground. Then sir [Alfaj] lashed on to me again and said if I paused, he would make me start over,” Panir said.
After finishing 500 squats, Panir started feeling unwell and decided to go home at Alambagh in Jurain, a 10-minute walk from the school. On the way, he collapsed.
“I could not walk. My legs were cramped. I was feeling dizzy. Suddenly, I fell on the road and lost sense,” he said.
Panir used to go home every day to pick up his lunch during the 30-minute lunch break. Yesterday, his mother got anxious when the youngest of her four children did not come home.
“I thought he got busy playing with his friends. So, I decided to go to his school. But a little way ahead, I saw a crowd and soon saw Panir lying on the road, unconscious. With the help of local people, I brought him home,” she said.
After Panir came around, he described what had happened. Panir’s father Abdul Barek, who is a vegetable vendor in a local market, and their eldest son Polash Hossain went to the school to inquire.
When Barek asked why his son had been given such severe punishment, the head teacher replied: “Has your son died? Come to me if he dies.”
Barek said: “We came back home and saw that Panir could not move his legs. He was screaming in pain. With the help of a neighbour, we took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.”
After examining him, doctors applied muscle-relaxing medication on him. “Because of excessive pressure, his cuff muscles cramped. It will take time to heal. He has to take complete bed rest,” said DMCH Resident Surgeon Dr Riaz Morshed.
“Actually, the incident has inflicted mental shock on the boy. He needs counselling,” the doctor said.
When contacted, the head teacher however claimed that Panir and his friends had teased a female student.
“I was on duty in an examination hall when Panir, Nahid and Arif teased a girl. Later, I saw the girl’s brother and two of his friends looking for them so that they could beat them up,” he said.
He claimed that he had punished the boys to dissuade the girl’s brother, whose name he said was Bashar.
“I called the students and asked them if they had teased the girl. They did not admit. Moreover, the boys were attending school without uniform. So, I asked them to do some squats holding their ears. But believe me, I did not mention any number, neither did I count how many they actually did,” he said.
“If I had not punished them, Bashar would have beaten them up,” head teacher Alfaj claimed while talking to this reporter over phone. He also requested the reporter not to ask anymore question.
Asked how an outsider could enter a classroom and beat a student of the school, Alfaj said: “Bashar and his friends are former students of the school. The teachers could not stop them.”
When asked about his head teacher’s claims, Panir said those were lies. “Bashar is Shahin’s uncle,” the boy said.
He also said: “I know the girl. She is Bashar’s sister. We did not tease her. She also reads in class VII but in the morning shift, which starts at 7am and ends at 12 noon. Boys’ classes start at 12 noon,” he said.
“You can ask everyone in my class. We did not even meet the girl on that day,” Panir said, breaking into tears.
