The headmistress of an intermediate school in Jeddah provoked the ire of parents on Wednesday by keeping pupils in school, switching off air-conditioners and telling girls to bring their own water next week to punish them for a playground water-fight after the end of an examination. Al-Madina Arabic daily reported Thursday that, with temperatures hitting 50 degrees centigrade, the principal refused to allow schoolgirls to leave the premises, making them clean the playground and ordering supervisors to switch off air-conditioners and bathroom taps while around 100 parents were left waiting outside for over an hour. “Some of the girls were playing with water outside, because of the heat, and suddenly the headmistress appeared and told supervisors to switch off the air-conditioners in the school and also cut off the water supply from Saturday onwards, saying that we should all bring our own water to school,” one pupil said. “She should have spoken to the girls who were playing with water instead of punishing everyone in the school for it,” said another. “My father got really worried having to wait outside. He was there from eight until ten, and started to think that something serious must have happened.” One parent, who said he arrived 15 minutes before the examination was due to end as he did not want to leave his daughter standing outside in the heat, said the only information he received was from the security guard who could only inform him that the principal had “not yet ordered him to open the gate”. Another father was upset as the delay in the girls' exit from school made him late for work, for which he was deducted half a day's pay. An official from Jeddah's Girls' Education Administration told Al-Madina that no complaint had been received from parents, but described the principal's behavior as “inappropriate”. “The headmistress will be contacted on Saturday for an explanation,” the official said.
