FAMILY members of M. Vasanthapiriya are demanding justice for the teenager who died today, following a suicide attempt after a teacher accused her of stealing a handphone. 

The SMK Methodist Nibong Tebal form two pupil died about 3.30am at Seberang Jaya Hospital after being in a coma for a week. 

Her maternal aunt, A. Lalitha, 43, said her 13-year-old niece must have been so humiliated by the accusation and treatment at school in front of her classmates.

“Why couldn’t the teacher ask her properly? Why hit her in front of her classmates? There were boys looking at her. 

“She must have been so embarrassed. How was she to go to school the next day to face her schoolmates?” she said outside the mortuary today.

“The teacher got her phone back, but will my sister get her child back?” she told reporters while breaking down.

Last Wednesday, a teacher accused Vasanthapiriya of stealing her iPhone 6. She denied it but the teacher did not believe her.

She was reprimanded in front of her classmates. It was alleged that she was hit, locked in the teachers’ room for almost five hours and then brought home by the teacher and her husband to confront the teen’s parents. 

While her parents and teacher went out to settle the matter, Vasanthapiriya hanged herself in her room. Her parents discovered her alive when they reached home but their child was unconscious. 

One of the teen’s uncles lodged a police report.

Vasanthapiriya’s family said her classmates told them that they saw the teacher with her phone a day after the incident. 

The Penang Education Department has since launched a probe into the incident and transferred the teacher to a desk job at the southern Seberang Prai district education office. 

Today, the department expressed sadness over the loss of the teen. 

“We hope Vasanthapiriya’s family will be strong in facing this terrible time,” deputy director Mohd Jamil Mohamed said in a statement. 

The department has left the investigation to police, Jamil said.

“The initial internal probe by the department has been completed and handed over to the education department.

“The department hopes everyone will be calm and give police the space to do their job,” he said. 

SMK Methodist Nibong Tebal parent-teacher association chairman Teoh Seang Hooi said they, too, are mourning Vasanthapiriya’s death. 

“The PIBG (PTA) expresses the deepest condolences to the family. 

“A special meeting will be held to ensure that all teachers adhere strictly to the SOP (standard operating procedures) in handling pupils.

“The state education department needs to remind all school authorities to follow the SOP,” he said. 

The department had said it was trying to determine if the school had followed the SOP on the matter

Jamil told The Malaysian Insight earlier that if a teacher loses an item, he or she should report it to the disciplinary teacher.

“The disciplinary teacher will then investigate and take action if it is true a pupil has done something wrong.”

He, however, said investigations are under way and would take “a bit of time to give justice to all parties”. – February 1, 2018.