Teachers and administrators at a private Saudi school detained female students last week because their parents were late in paying tuition fees.

The students were imprisoned in a classroom throughout the day last Monday after school officials notified parents the previous Wednesday that the fees were due, according to parents.

Abdulrahman Al-Qurashi, a father of one of the detained students, said there was not enough time to pay the fees.

“The school sent an official letter stating that the fees should be delivered by Wednesday of the first week of school, while the detention took place on Monday,” Al-Qurashi said. “This means that time was very tight.”

Bayan Zahran, a lawyer, said the parents have the right to file a legal complaint against the school because the Ministry of Education, through a formal decision, prohibits the detention of the certificates or students stemming from tuition payments.

“The complaint that can be filed by families of students is two-fold,” Zahran said. “The first part is a partial complaint to the court, especially if there is harm to the students. In this case, they may receive compensation.

“The second part is to be a management complaint to the Ministry of Education, noting that if the school wants to claim its rights, it should be through legal means and not through detaining the students because schools are educational institutions with a role of educating society, not terrorizing students.”

A ministry spokesman could not be reached for comment.

A school source said on the condition of anonymity that it was the first time such an incident had occurred.

The principal, said the source, assigned a teacher to supervise the students from the beginning of the second period until the end of the school day.

Students paid the fees at the end of the school day due to the fear and panic, the source said.

Al-Qurashi, the father of one of the girls, said his daughter told him the principal detained them in a room by putting a teacher in charge to supervise. The teacher kept the room door shut throughout the detention.

Al-Qurashi said the incident lacks the basic principles of the educational process. He noted that the “delay in paying fees is not justification for terrorizing the students,” even if they disavow the payment of the fees.

He said other parents were upset because overdue payments are not the fault of the student. He added that he and other parents would file a formal complaint against the school.