BUKIT MERTAJAM, March 17 — The parents of a Year One pupil from a national primary school here are aggrieved over the way the headmaster disciplined their son.

They claimed the headmaster dragged their son to the front of a morning assembly — with the child’s pants coming off in the process — and beat him on his buttocks and back.

“We do not understand the attitude of the headmaster, why drag my son and beat him?” said mother S. Jellinah Swari, during a press conference at the Prai assemblyman, P. Ramasamy’s, service centre at Taman Chai Leng yesterday.

She said the incident happened on March 5 at about 7.30am when the teachers and pupils gathered for morning assembly.

“My son returned home in the afternoon and told me about the incident, but I thought it was just a minor incident and nothing to worry about

“However, a parent of another pupil told me the headmaster dragged my son out in front of everyone in the assembly.

“I felt the headmaster had treated my son like a criminal and what was the mistake he committed to punish him that way.”

Jellinah said she went to the school to enquire on the incident.

“While walking to the headmaster’s office, a lady teacher in charge of student affairs shouted at me and called me stupid for not transferring my son to a special school.”

She said the headmaster was in his room, but he did not come out to check what was happening outside.

Jellinah said the teacher had been telling her to transfer her son to a special school, but she refused.

She then took her son to consult a paediatric specialist, who said that her son was normal and needed no specialised tuition.

Jellinah lodged a police report on March 10 and had also lodged a complaint with the state Education Department to investigate.

A police spokesman, when contacted, confirmed the report on the incident.

Several attempts to reach the state Education Department director for comment failed.