Report lodged against teacher
Published on: Tuesday, March 03, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: A 26-year-old single mother has lodged a report against an English language teacher at SK Gentisan, in Teluk Sepanggar, here, for reportedly abusing her seven-year-old son physically and emotionally last week. Azlina Andan claimed she went to the school to fetch her son at about 5pm last Monday and heard a woman shouting from one of the classrooms. She said the shouting lasted for about 20 minutes and this made her curious as to what was riling up the teacher so much. "I was not allowed to enter the school compound until classes were over, so I decided to come up with an excuse of wanting to go to the restroom," she said. "As I neared my son's classroom, I realised the shouting came from his classroom and just as I walked past my son's classroom I saw the teacher stomping out. ADVERTISEMENT "I went to the toilet and moments later walked past the classroom again only to see the teacher standing near my son who was shaking in fear as the teacher lifted his bag and threw it to the floor before using his book to hit his head and back of the neck," she claimed. This prompted her to confront the teacher but the teacher denied hitting the boy and claimed that she was merely advising him."The teacher even said my son damaged his schoolbag himself when, in fact, I saw her throwing his bag on the floor earlier," she said, adding that the teacher even threatened the class to say that her son was naughty and refused to sit still. "I lodged a report and also wrote to the State Education Department fearing for my son's mental and physical health," she added. She said it now dawned on her what her son had been saying for sometime now that he was afraid to go to school because of a teacher.ADVERTISEMENT "I thought he was making up the story and forced him to go to school," said Azlina, who was accompanied to the Daily Express office in Kolombong by the Karambunai Single Mothers Association President Zainaba Shukor. "Teachers should educate children, not torment them," said Zainaba, adding that children being naughty is not an excuse to hurt them. She urged the State Education Department to look into the case quickly.
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She said she was made to understand that the school issued a warning to the boy for not attending class despite the parent informing the secretary and staff about what had happened."Which traumatised child would want to go back to school especially now when they are threatened, even the mother is scared now," she said. "I was informed of another pupil who feared and refused to go to school the last three days after getting pinched and her hair pulled by a different teacher from the same school.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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"If there is more than one case, you know there is trouble in the school and those who are not fit to be teachers should not be teaching, especially Primary One pupils," she said. "We also want to know why the State Education Department is taking so long to take action, we want to come forward because there might be more cases but nobody dare to report for fear that they too would be victimised," she added.