One mom in Malaysia caused an outrage among netizens after an image of her eight-year-old daughter chained to a lamppost was shared on social media and went viral on Wednesday.

Local authorities have questioned the 30-year-old mother who claimed she tied the primary school student to the concrete column at their Lagoon Perdana apartment to teach her a lesson. She said her daughter refused to go to school at the nearby Bandar Sunway.

Malaysians voiced their disgust on social media for the cruel punishment, Star Online reported.

“The mother has humiliated her daughter in a lifelong way. This once happened to a friend I knew. He held it against his father for 50 years,” a netizen was quoted as saying.

Another voiced out his anger at witnesses who took the time to take photos but did not offer helping the girl. He said, “Shame upon all the bystanders & the person who took these pictures revealing the child’s face!”

The local police, who were notified of the incident in the evening, found the girl still chained when they arrived.

“When our men arrived at the scene, they found the girl surrounded by people with her leg chained,” OCPD official Mohammad Azlin Sadari told reporters.

At the police station, the mother claimed that it was the first time she chained her daughter to a post. The mother and girl were then released after questioning.

Prominent Malaysian psychologist Dr. Abdul Kadir Abu Bakar said such parenting that involved harsh punishments would not encourage children to attend school:

“Instead, it may be counter-productive and jeopardise their learning abilities,” he said.

“In terms of disciplining, that was obviously wrong. If the mother wants her to go to school, she must devise some ways to reward her for going to school, maybe like praise or acknowledgement. Punishment will only make the child fear school more.”