YOURSAY | Schools must have the proper SOP to ensure bullying does not occur on their premises.

Bullied student wins RM616k in suit against assailants, teachers and gov't

Anonymous_1371555221: Everyone please pray that your children, your grandchildren and future generations will be protected from bullies in schools by every law that we have, since the schools are not doing their job.

I would also like to suggest that the punishment to the five boys who bullied the victim should be much heavier.

The victim not only suffered physical injuries with a damaged eardrum but also suffers from emotional trauma due to the incident.

In my opinion, the five culprits should be sent to jail or to a Henry Gurney school which is set up for the rehabilitation for juvenile inmates.

Also, I feel the parents of the five bullies should at least be sued or forced to pay a hefty fine.

Kaamapo: Parents who don't want their mischievous children to be punished as per school regulations should look for other schools or teach them at home themselves!

Schools should be tough with naughty or undisciplined students and ensure that they abide by the rules of the school.

It's quite common now for a few bad apples in classes to hamper proper teaching and learning. Thus, the progress of good students will be affected.

Often, teachers get stressed up. In some schools where severe discipline problems often occur, the role of police liaison officers in these schools does not seem to be producing the desired results.

The award paid out, in this case, should be a wake-up call for the Education Ministry. It must take bullying incidents seriously and act on them.

Also, one must note that despite the ill management in certain schools, quite a few teachers/staff who are purely unworthy go on express promotions.

Jarchin: Well done, High Court judge Zainal Azman. Let this be a deterrent and a good lesson to everyone.

I am sure that the teacher was being paid an allowance for acting as a warden. I am also very sure that the teacher was excused from teaching duties for which he would have drawn full salary.

NNFC: Good judgment given by the court.

This should serve as a reminder that the school has a responsibility in ensuring that the safety and welfare of pupils and students are taken of while they are in school.

As the mother of the boy said, "We are not after money but justice for our son who until today is still traumatised and has lost his hearing due to the bullying.”

In addition to the five bullies being punished with a fine, they should be given counselling and instructed to do public service.

KingKriolle: Let this be a lesson for all bullies out there, their parents/guardians, teachers, school authorities, Education Ministry and related agencies.

Bullying should be looked upon with disgust and there should be zero tolerance towards it. It must be nipped in the bud and not until an innocent child is hurt.

The child will have to endure the memory of the traumatic experience for years before he or she can actually recover from it.

The Wakandan: Hopefully, by now, all schools have the proper standard operating procedure (SOP) to ensure that bullying does not occur in their premises.

“The report said the boy, who scored 5As in his UPSR examination in 2013, also suffered depression from bullying and eventually transferred to another school in July 2015.”

Nobody has to undergo that kind of depression, being forced on him by bullies.

Granted that the wardens could not do everything. Even if they did their rounds, this kind of bullying could still happen.

The court decision should serve as a strong example or message that such incidents of bullying in schools will not be tolerated.

Any future occurrence must be dealt with as harsh as possible and there should be no let-up against bullying in our academic institutions.

This is not the only one incident, there were many others and most went viral on social media. Going viral on social media does not serve any purpose if we are not going to do anything about it.

It will only humiliate the victims and nothing more.

Anonymous_3c17b8f6: The amount paid out to the victim is way too low in my opinion.

I feel that it should be much, much higher and those bullies should be given severe punishment as a stern reminder to them that what they did was totally wrong.

Even if the wardens were there, they should be charged with frauding the federal government as they did not perform their duty.

I consider collecting a salary but not doing the work for it to be fraud

OrangTua: In some schools, wardens are sadly are the ones most overburdened.

Some are even mothers with very young children and forced to serve as school wardens for a minimum of two years.

They do so under severe stress and duress. The meagre allowance that they receive means nothing to them.

I don't know what was the actual situation at the Sekolah Menengah Sains Sultan Mahmud but the Education Ministry must come up with a solution.

They must be quick about it because students are at risk as long as the ministry ignores the problem.

An allowance is not the answer. What such hostels or boarding schools need are non-teaching staff to work as wardens.

Full-time wardens will not be burdened by the usual teaching/non-teaching duties that teachers have in their busy schedule.

Pay them well, for their work is a thankless task.

Ask any parent how difficult it is to look after just 10 of their own kids. What more hundreds of students from every background imaginable.

So give these wardens a good salary and they will do their job well.

Pandangan: Do you think this is the only school in our country that is experiencing negligence by staff or so-called incompetent management?

I seriously doubt it.

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