MAKKAH: Female jail wardens were brought into a girls’ school in Makkah on Monday after students went on a rampage in protest over the confiscation of their mobile phones. The students also attacked the school principal for confiscating their phones.
Police arrived at the girls’ school in the city’s Mansour district after receiving a call from the principal’s husband that his wife was besieged in her office by a group of angry students.
Wardens from a women’s prison were finally brought in to break the siege and rescue the principal. During the riot, girls broke tables and chairs and opened gas cylinders.
The rioting happened after the principal and her assistant found seven camera phones, makeup items and perfume in classrooms while students sat exams. Bringing such items are against the school’s rules.
Once exams were over, students whose mobiles and other possessions were taken rushed to the principal’s office to protest. The principal’s husband said he called the police after receiving a telephone call from his distraught wife.
A number of teachers had earlier unsuccessfully tried to calm the students down. Police have filed cases against the students with the Education Department in Makkah, which has set up a committee to investigate the incident.
The Education Department condemned the students’ behavior and confirmed that bringing mobile phones into schools was not allowed. It added that this is an isolated and rare incident.
The majority of students at the school are from the local African community. There are 750 students of various nationalities in the school.
A similar riot took place at a female juvenile center in Makkah a few weeks ago. That led the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) to ask the Ministry of Social Affairs to take immediate steps to improve conditions in juvenile centers.
“The ministry should strive to improve conditions in juvenile centers. The NSHR has received many complaints about sad incidents in reformatories in the past years,” said Hussein Al-Shareef, NSHR spokesman in the Makkah province.
Al-Shareef added that the riot was part of a struggle between two groups — a group that was with the administration and another which called for defending their rights.
Taif University recently witnessed scuffles when female security guards tried to disperse about 1,000 girl students who staged a sit-in after being turned away on admission day. Police were called to restore order after the squatting girls and their guardians blocked the streets in front of the university.
Scuffles broke out when the security guards in front of the university intervened and tried to calm the girls down, witnesses reported.
