Parent tells of how one school unfairly handled an incident

GEORGE TOWN: The father of a 15-year-old boy who was allegedly bullied at school recalled his shock when his son was expelled after reporting the incident.

“The school kicked my son, another victim and the four bullies out. Why expel the victims? We were so angry,” said the 41-year-old man who declined to be named.

“My son never told me he was being bullied. But early this year, I found bruises on his back and knew something bad was happening.

“I went to the school with another parent, whose son was beaten too, and we were shocked when the teachers refused to accept that the beatings had happened at school.

“When we made police reports, the school expelled our sons and the bullies,” he said.

He said his son later admitted that he had been picked on in school since he was 13 but kept it to himself out of fear.

“He would refuse to go to school at that time. I could not understand why he was so reluctant to go and had to force him to put on his uniform.

“He is still afraid to go to school today,” the father said.

On April 2, the man joined about 100 parents and their children in a protest march outside the school.

They had accused the school administration of turning a blind eye to allegations of bullying and gangsterism.

They had gathered after one of the parents claimed he saw a group of students beating up their classmates on March 31.

After the Education Ministry stepped in, the father said all the schoolboys involved were reinstated and the school put under observation by the state Education Department for a few months.

Other cases of school bullying reported include:

n April 25: A Form Two student fractured his right elbow after he was allegedly kicked by his classmates at a school in Pokok Sena, Alor Setar.

■ February 2: A video of secondary student in a school from Sea Park, Petaling Jaya, being forced by other youths, who were not in uniform, to lick the road went viral on the internet.

■ January 11: A Form Five student allegedly attacked her schoolmate in her father’s presence in front of their school in Alor Setar after she claimed that she had been bullied.

■ November 21, 2015: A Form One student at a private religious school in Alor Setar was critically injured when he was attacked by a group of seniors.