Malaysian teacher apologises for pond punishment

KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 (Reuters) A Malaysian teacher has apologised for forcing 200 schoolgirls to squat in a dirty pond after they failed to own up to a sanitary pad found in a toilet bowl, a newspaper said today.

The Star newspaper said in its online edition that the 27-year-old female teacher had been spared punishment after the apology to the parents of the students. (www.thestar.com.my) ''Everybody has forgiven her,'' the school's parent-teacher association chairman, Jimmy Kiu, was quoted as saying. ''The incident is settled in good faith.'' Newspapers on Sunday reported that the girls were in the pond for an hour in heavy rain and the teacher, who was also a hostel warden, watched under an umbrella.

A picture showed the girls neck-deep in water.

A school official had said the warden was angry and punished the girls after she found the sanitary pad in the toilet bowl.

REUTERS AGL RN1438