Are schools safe for children?

 

Parents willingly put their trust in teachers to nurture and educate their children, and school would be the last place where parents expect teachers to abuse this trust.

So, are schools safe for children?

You’d like to think so, but not if you were to ask Mogahana Selvi, the mother whose 11-year-old son had been forced to stand under the scorching sun for close to three hours on 30 April.

A similar negative response would be given by a group of 10- and 11-year-old pupils of a school in Ayer Baloi. When they discovered their 48-year-old male teacher smoking in a storeroom, their teacher ended up slapping, punching, strangling and swearing at them.

It is also doubtful that the 18-year-old vocational college student, whose teacher whipped him 10 times with a cane for not attending tarawih prayers, would consider school a safe haven.

Only naïve Malaysians would think that nothing untoward would happen in a religious school. Recently, many students lodged police reports alleging that their 39-year-old ustaz had sodomised them.

These cases form the tip of the iceberg and it is highly likely that for every case that is reported, many other children suffer in silence.

Perhaps, the child will have been warned about repercussions. Perhaps their parents opted not to report the crime, as they do not wish to bring shame to themselves, their families and the community.

How did we get here?

With many teachers creating headlines for the wrong reasons, parents of school-going children must dread the daily six hours of lessons, when they hope their children have not been physically, mentally or sexually abused, by of all people, the teacher.

So, how did Mogahana’s son end up standing in the middle of a field, under the hot sun for close to three hours?

We are also told he is often targeted by school bullies. How did the school resolve this?

Having complained to his teacher about another pupil throwing a water bottle at him, he and three others, but not the boy who’d thrown the bottle, were then told to stand under the hot sun as punishment.

Worse was to follow. The three boys who were punished alongside Mogahana’s son were told to return to their classrooms after 10 minutes, but not him. Despite complaining of dizziness, the torture continued.

Mogahana’s son appears to have elicited the sadistic streak in his teacher because what the teacher did that day was unconscionable.

He caused the boy to have life-changing injuries. He cannot claim that he’d forgotten about the boy.

The teacher is criminally negligent.

If the teacher had followed the official approved mode of punishment, then the headmaster, the school, the education department and the Education Ministry are also culpable.

Mogahana’s son returned home feeling unwell after his ordeal. He felt dizzy, had red eyes and when rushed to hospital, had fainted at the emergency entrance.

Brainless

Doctors who examined him said he had heatstroke and had developed a nerve condition. The Ampang Hospital then designated him as a “person with disabilities” and advised his parents to register him with the social welfare department for a “disability” card.

The most gut-wrenching thing must have been when the parents were told that their young son would not be able to return to a normal school.

Only a brainless person would allow a young child to stand in the scorching sun for hours. Can the teacher really be that dense?

Young children, babies, the ill, and elderly people are most at risk in the hot sun. Children left in locked cars are found lifeless by their parents, who on their return a few hours later, then wonder why their children had died.

The spotlight is on the teacher, the school head, the other teachers and the school administration staff.

Did the teacher strictly follow the school rule book, or as Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek calls it, the “Student Management Guidelines”, for the appropriate punishment?

Was “standing under the scorching sun” an approved method of punishment which is sanctioned by the Education Department and the ministry?

Or is this mode of punishing students one that is not in the guidelines, but has nevertheless been done for many years and has come to be accepted as the norm?

If a punishment is not listed, why not? Why did the head not convey this to the Education Department?

Most schools have a disciplinary teacher. Was this teacher the one who disciplines misbehaving pupils?

Couldn’t care less

The sight of a young boy standing in the middle of the field, under a blazing sun for at least three hours should have aroused someone’s curiosity.

Incredibly, the other teachers, the school administrators, and the head did not think it strange to see a young boy standing on the field.

Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek

This apathetic, tidak-apa (couldn’t care less) behaviour says a lot about the culture and work ethics of the school’s teaching and administration staff.

The lawyer representing the boy’s family has alleged that a witness has been threatened, that the investigation is conducted at a snail’s pace and that the teacher responsible has not been suspended.

Fadhlina said there would be no compromise over the safety of students and that appropriate action would be taken based on the investigation report.

Haven’t we heard her lip service before? Fadhlina must do more to ensure that our schools do not become every parent’s nightmare. - Mkini

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MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and the president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, X.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.