PETALING JAYA, July 26 —The head of SRK Seri Pristana yesterday denied being “forced” to go on administrative leave after pictures of the school’s students eating in a bathroom were leaked online, insisting he took the break of his own accord.

He added that this was done as a precaution after receiving two alleged threats on his life.

“I decided to take a voluntary one week’s leave starting from today (yesterday). I have also lodged a police report at the Saujana Utama police station after I received two death threats,” Mohamad Nasir Mohd Noor was quoted as saying by The Star in its report today.

“I decided that I needed to be away for my own safety after I got the death threats.”

On Tuesday, a mother by the name of Guneswari Kelly posted on social network Facebook photographs that appeared to show several non-Muslim children and even adults at a school named as SRK Seri Pristana in Sungai Buloh taking their recess in the lavatory even as the school canteen went unoccupied.

According to her, the children were directed not to use the canteen — shown cordoned off in the pictures — as they would “dirty” the area. Instead, they were told to go to the school’s changing rooms and lavatories, and ordered to stay there for the duration of their recess.

Yesterday, Mohd Nasir, 57, lodged the police report to protect himself after he received the death threat and was condemned by certain quarters, including on Facebook, in regards with the issue, according to news agency Bernama.

“At about 10am two days ago, after the picture was widely circulated over the Internet, I received a phone call from a man claiming to be a member of a non-governmental organisation.

“Besides condemning and bad-mouthing me, he also said ‘If I meet you, I will kill you.’” Mohd Nasir told reporters after lodging the report at Saujana Utama police station here.

A day after a firestorm erupted over images depicting primary schoolchildren eating in what was variably described as a toilet, a shower room and a changing room shared on social media sites, Deputy Education Minister P. Kamalanathan declared the issue closed following an apology from the school head.

The eating area in the bathroom has since been closed and the children directed to once again take their meals at the school canteen.

Following the controversy, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also education minister, confirmed on his Twitter page that the incident will be investigated and punishment meted to those responsible.

The incident is reminiscent of a 2010 incident in Kedah where the headmistress of Sekolah Menegah Kebangsaan Bukit Selambau accused Chinese pupils there of being insensitive towards their Muslim peers by eating in the school compound during the fasting month of Ramadan, before ordering them to “return to China” if they could not respect the culture of other races.

Although the school head later apologised, the incident and others in the same vein led to accusations of perceived tolerance for racism within the government and the civil service that some blamed on programmes conducted by the National Civics Bureau (BTN).