Penang Student Suffered Bleeding In Eye After Teacher Allegedly Punished Him For Vaping In Class

His teacher punished him with the cane but it accidentally struck his right eye, causing it to bleed.

(Credit: Freepik, Malaysia Gazette)

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A 17-year-old student in a secondary school in Sungai Ara, Penang, sustained an injury to his right eye when he was punished by his teacher for vaping in class.

As reported by Malaysia Gazette, the student’s father Mazni Mohamad, 47, said that his son was caught vaping in his Science class at 12.30 pm, yesterday (14 September).

He was then taken to another teacher, said to be the assistant disciplinary teacher, before they started questioning him. He was allegedly caught lying about the incident.

The said teacher proceeded to punish him with a cane but the cane accidentally struck his right eye, causing it to bleed.

Mazni, who is also a lorry driver, said that his third child complained of pain before noticing bloodstains on his hands.

After they realised that his actions caused injury to the student, the school authorities quickly took him to a clinic and then to the Balik Pulau Hospital for follow-up treatment.

(Credit: Malaysia Gazette, Harian Metro)

However, he was informed that they didn’t have any eye specialists there so his son was referred to Penang General Hospital (GH) for further treatment.

For now, his son’s condition is stable but he requires five days of monitoring before the doctor decides on any subsequent treatment.

In an interview with Malaysia Gazette, the father asked who was going to be responsible if his son ended up blind.

If it’s just a scratch on his hands or legs, that’s a different story, but on his eye, that’s serious.
Mazni, Father of student

When they were at the hospital, the teacher first told him that his son had a small injury above his right eye, which he thought was not that serious.

But after they called him again and said he was being brought to GH, which was usually for critical cases, he immediately rushed to the hospital and was speechless when he saw his son’s condition.

I know my son has disciplinary issues, but this is not the way to teach him a lesson. We’re lucky he didn’t go blind.
Mazni Mohamad, Father of victim

Aside from filing a police report, Mazni said that they were going to meet with the school authorities today to discuss further about the incident.

Pelajar Tingkatan Lima di sebuah sekolah menengah di Pulau Pinang mendakwa mengalami pendarahan di mata kanan akibat dirotan seorang guru hari ini.

Bapa mangsa mendakwa anaknya dirotan atas kesalahan menghisap rokok elektronik di dalam kelas.#malaysiagazette #mgnews… pic.twitter.com/bAJSgud0x9
— Malaysia Gazette (@MalaysiaGazette) September 14, 2023

Guideline for school canning

According to a 2003 circular, there are guidelines for a teacher to cane a student.

Some of these include:

Only headmasters can cane a student and if not, they can give the power to other teachers (sign the agreement to relay power).
Girls are prohibited from caning punishment.
Boys can be caned but only on the hands (lightly) and buttocks (layered with clothing).
Public caning is prohibited, including in classes.

The types of punishment follow the severity of the offence. For light offences, students are given a warning and counselling. For medium offences, students can be caned lightly on their hands (maximum of 3 times). For heavy offences, students can be caned on the buttocks (maximum of 3 times).

Some of the heavy offences include being rude to the teacher/student monitor/other student and bringing or using devices that can cause harm or disrupt teaching and learning sessions/examinations or tests.

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