JAKARTA: School teachers in Indonesia were filmed throwing smartphones in a barrel of fire after confiscating them from students. A video of the incident shared on Instagram has sparked several furious reactions from netizens.
Carrying a smartphone to school has been a debatable issue for a long time in the country. Now, due to the ongoing pandemic and remote learning, smartphones have become quite essential. That’s why the harsh punishment has left netizens stunned.
In the video, a teacher was seen throwing smartphones into a barrel of fire as students watched horrified – from a distance. Several students begged, asking the teachers to stop, but in vain. Meanwhile, another teacher also threw an iPhone into the barrel.
According to Indonesian media, there is no mention as to where or specifically, when, the video was recorded, as neither the students nor teachers present appeared to be wearing face masks.
“Cell phone raids at Islamic boarding schools, cell phones are confiscated and burned,” reads the caption of the post when translated from Indonesian to English.
The video has garnered over 875k views with social media users sharing their opinions in the comments section of the post.
“Maybe the boarding school has reprimanded it many times. Maybe in this way, the students will give upbringing cell phones,” an Instagram user said.
“Educators by name, and yet they choose to set such a poor example. If something doesn’t belong to us, we have no right to destroy it. They could have confiscated it and then returned the phones to the students a week later,” another user added.