Her Stress - Part 1

Twenty pupils in Primary 5D were caned on their palms (their writing hands) on 20 July 2010. One of them is my son. Their form teacher had used the back-end of a feather duster to cane them juz because they did not bring back their spelling books for parents to sign. Twenty out of twenty-nine pupils did not listen to instruction? If it was juz one or two pupils, I could understand; maybe, they forgot. But twenty pupils? Something must be wrong with the way the teacher presented her instruction!

Anyway, I brought up the issue to the school principal. She arranged for a meeting on the very next day. On 21 July 2010, at 10am, I went to the principal's office to have that meeting with her and the teacher concerned. Both apologised to me. The teacher said,

"I sincerely apologise to you. I assure you that I will not hit the pupils anymore. You can have my word. I will also be professional and not black-mark or black-list any pupil in my class for complaining."

What she was trying to imply was she would not black-mark my son. She said she was feeling very stressed up, so, when twenty pupils did not get their spelling books signed, it juz triggered "something" in her till she resorted to hitting the pupils. I told her that everyone has stress; it's how you manage your stress. I said,

"If you can't manage your stress, then you should go see a counsellor or go for anger-management courses."

She juz stared at me and looked away. She even said,

"I react in certain ways because I want the pupils to learn, not to repeat the same mistake. I am here to help parents like you to bring up your children with integrity and moral values."

MORAL VALUES???...I stopped her there and asked her,

"What moral values? You ask yourself first whether you have moral values before you wanna instil moral values in others!"

I asked the principal to release her from the meeting room cos I wanna have a word with the principal alone.

The principal asked me repeatedly to forgive the teacher, saying that this teacher is very good in her subjects and has helped some ex-students to achieve excellence in the core subjects. She also told me that the teacher has been having health problems since four months ago and is on medication. The medication sometimes makes her sort of "floating". She even has some personal problems. I said, in that case, she is not fit to teach. But the principal insisted that I forgive this teacher. I thought, okay, I should juz ask the principal to monitor her closely.

That same afternoon, when visiting Mak at NUH, my niece, Syahirah, now 22, triggered my memory by telling me that my son's form teacher is the same form teacher she had twelve years ago in the same school! And the types of punishment meted out to her pupils twelve years ago were also the same! I fumed!...I called the principal but she was in a meeting. At nite, the principal called me and I told her what happened twelve years ago. She promised me that she would conduct a thorough investigation cos the teacher left the school in 2002 and came back only about two years ago. The teacher had asked to come back and when the principal hesitated, she asked two HODs to put in good words on her behalf...I have given the principal till Monday, 26 July 2010, to wrap up her investigation. No matter what, I will proceed to MOE on Monday...I had accepted her health condition since the principal said that she has been on medication since four months ago. But to think that the same things happened twelve years ago? That means that she has not changed a single bit! Someone has to teach her a lesson!

So much for her stress. A spinster who is stressed up and lets off steam by hitting her pupils. She probably gets a high seeing the faces of little children cringe after every punishment; any type of punishment, be it by hitting with the feather duster, throwing of the whiteboard duster, doing squads repeatedly (ketuk-ketampi), etc. I will not let this matter rest. While she thinks she can get away with whatever that happened twelve years ago and still continue to earn her big bucks and healthy bonuses, I beg to differ. I will go all the way to ensure that no pupil in the school can be hurt anymore juz because she is having STRESS. After all, I still have Aryna coming in to the school next year to start her primary education.

PS:- It hurts Dear and me a lot because our second son is the most obedient and most well-behaved among our three sons. As such, we have never used any corporal punishment on him because there isn't a need to.