My Longkang

STU ( Sarawak Teachers Union ) has urged all parties to give the police ample time to complete their investigations before further action is taken. There will be no cover up with the on-going investigation,” said Wiliam Ghani Bina who heads Cuepacs.

In the said incident, two teachers were alleged to have kicked and caned a 12 year old Form 2 student in the early hours of the morning until he confessed to smoking. The student has since changed his stand and has insisted he was not smoking.

Whether he was smoking or not is not the issue. We can assume he is a boarding student as it happened in the early hours of the morning. The teachers have since given the family RM1 000 for ‘medical expenses’.

Understandably, many quarters are riled up over the issue. The teachers especially the wardens are there to protect the welfare of the students in their care. Taken out of context and put under the microscope the incident might seem worse than it actually is.

To me, it is an isolated case of two teachers who perhaps being overworked and overstressed, over-reacted under provocation. Perhaps there was some reason to discipline him but of course the manner it was carried out all wrong.

Let us now await the outcome of the police investigations into the matter. It has never been reported but the wardens do not have an easy job. It is like playing ‘police’. They are there to maintain law and order.

Once in the school, the students are students and have to be treated by adults with velvet gloves with special rules, regulations and laws to protect them. Some students manipulate these special protective rules and regulations. They know there is a limit to what the school can do. They keep pushing and pushing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour.

But take them out of the school context, they could be the local village villains. Let us not forget the incident where 18 students of SMK Teknik were detained for the murder of a fellow border Matheus. 3 of them were subsequently charged.

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