Schoolboy in Malaysia permanently disabled after teacher’s punishment gives him heatstroke, family says
Mother says family have been told boy will now need to attend special needs school
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An 11-year-old boy in Malaysia was left disabled after a teacher punished him by making him stand in the sun for around three hours, his family says.
The boy from Ampang Jaya outside Kuala Lumpur was made to stand in the sun from 10am to 12.50pm on 30 April and was later rushed to hospital.
The boy has been declared Person With Disability (PwD) by the Ampang Hospital where he was treated, his mother AD Mogahana Selvi said.
Ms Mogahana, 35, said the hospital has issued a letter assessing him as a PwD and said he needs to be sent to a school for children with special needs.
The family is expected to file a civil suit and seek charges against the teacher.
The 11-year-old is believed to have suffered neurological damage as a result of the heatstroke he suffered, reported the New Straits Times.
"To be honest, I feel upset when I see my child’s condition as he is now not normal. Previously, he used to play often with his siblings, but now he hides a lot and talks to himself,” his mother said.
"The hospital informed me that I can’t send my son to a regular school anymore because of his health issues. They say I have to send him to a school for special needs children now," she told reporters.
Their lawyer Dinesh Muthal said the incident has caused a lot of stress to the victim’s parents, especially the mother, who is three months into a pregnancy.
"Apart from a civil suit, we want the teacher involved to be charged in court and be given an appropriate sentence (if found guilty)," he said.
Police said they have concluded their investigation into the case and passed on the findings to the deputy public prosecutor’s office for further action.
However, the lawyer has called the police investigation “unsatisfactory”.
He said the school sent three warning letters to the parents of the boy for his absence from the school while he was being treated. But the school did not mention the “issue of the boy being forced to stand in the sun with the parents”.
It comes as brutal heatwaves sweeping across Asia this year have caused alarm, forcing many countries to adopt emergency measures.
Malaysia issued emergency orders in March as the temperature edged close to 40C.
Since the beginning of April, dozens of countries in Asia from India to the Philippines have seen record-high temperatures leading to school closures and the triggering of urgent health warnings across the region.
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