Sebastian visiting the schoolgirl to check on her condition.
MIRI: The two teachers who were caught up in the controversy over the conversion of a Form One schoolgirl in Miri have gone on leave pending a decision whether to transfer them out of the state.
It is learnt that the two teachers will no longer be teaching at SMK Lutong.
SUPP secretary-general Datuk Sebastian Ting confirmed to The Star Online that the party had requested that the teachers be transferred out of the state to end the controversy.
"The SUPP received many queries of concern from the rakyat in Sarawak as to the disciplinary actions to be taken against the teachers concerned for carrying out an illegal conversion on a minor.
"The people of Sarawak want punitive action to stop such conversions in the state.
"We in the SUPP feel that to be fair to all and to have a closure, a simple, peaceful and non-confrontational solution would be to transfer the two teachers out of Sarawak," said Ting.
The parents of the girl, who are scrap-metal collectors, claimed that their daughter had been coaxed into accepting RM250 by two Kelantanese teachers and several individuals.
They claimed that the teachers had converted the girl without their consent.
The teachers have lodged a police report claiming that the girl had wanted to embrace Islam on her own accord.
Sarawak Minister for Welfare, Women and Family Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, who is also state minister for Education, had stressed that teachers were transferred to the state to teach and not be involved in any conversion of students.
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