Editor’s note: The parties’ names have been omitted as the alleged incident involves a minor.
A student of a district boarding school in Selangor has hauled to court a hockey teacher who allegedly sexually harassed the then 13-year-old four years ago.
The plaintiff, who is now 17, filed the originating summons against the 38-year-old Bahasa Malaysia language teacher at the Shah Alam High Court in November 2022.
According to the statement of claim sighted by Malaysiakini, she said that the teacher harassed her on two occasions in 2019.
The first alleged incident occurred around 9am one morning in November 2019. The teen claimed the teacher called her into the school’s sports room purportedly to discuss her performance in hockey.
She claimed that while initially he was discussing the sport, he then suddenly used his smartphone to snap photos of her, using the excuse that she was the hockey captain.
The teen alleged that the teacher then directed her to pose in multiple positions while he snapped the photos, including for her to face him and repeatedly open and close her eyes and mouth.
She claimed that she felt compelled to abide by his photo-snapping directives, which she never consented to, including having her back towards him while bending forward and resting her hand on a cabinet.
The plaintiff claimed that the second incident took place at 9.30pm in December of the same year during the school holiday when the teacher allegedly texted her on WhatsApp while she was at home and directed her to snap several photos of herself.
The student alleged that the defendant directed her to snap photos of her in various positions and poses, including of her crawling and repeatedly opening and closing her eyes and mouth while lying down.
She claimed that this went on until about 3am, with the teacher allegedly repeatedly messaging her to snap the photos and send him the pictures until he was satisfied.
She said that she then felt compelled to abide by his directives to delete all the WhatsApp messages as well as photos she snapped on her mobile phone.
Others harassed as well
Alongside her mother and older brother, who are co-plaintiffs, the girl contended that the teacher’s sexually charged directives amounted to attempts to normalise these incidents and groom her.
She alleged that immediately after the two purported incidents in 2019, she found out that certain members of her hockey team had also received similar directives from the teacher.
She claimed that around January 2020, the teacher had again messaged her on WhatsApp while she was at home sick and asked for her to snap photos of herself with the excuse of trying to ascertain her condition.
She declined, resulting in the teacher deleting the said messages.
The teen recalled that later in February of the same year, a female student of the same school had lodged a report over alleged sexual harassment by the same teacher.
She claimed, however, that it took her until December 2021 before she burst into tears in front of her older brother while they both were walking from their home to a convenience store, where she told him what happened.
The student explained that her family then repeatedly had several meetings with multiple members of the school faculty, who allegedly admitted the teacher’s sexual harassment acts but failed to take appropriate action against him.
Mental trauma
She claimed that following the incident, she suffered emotional distress and nervous shock, which included insomnia, self-blame, low self-esteem, a change in appetite for meals, loss of interest in daily activities, and a tendency to become aggressive over trivial matters.
Through the lawsuit, she seeks general, special, aggravated and exemplary damages from not only the teacher but also 10 other defendants.
These 10 other defendants are the school principal, five members of the school faculty, the Selangor state education director, the education minister, and the ministry, as well as the federal government.
Meanwhile, in his statement of defence, the teacher denied the student’s sexual harassment claims, pointing out that he has an alibi witness to attest he never called her into the school’s sports room.
He also denied ever having sent any WhatsApp messages to the girl that amounted to sexual harassment.
Law firm Faizal Rahman & Co is acting for the girl and her family.
Law firm Khairul Anan & Partners represents the teacher, while the Attorney-General’s Chambers represents the rest of the defendants. - Mkini
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