Another case of a pupil quizzed by cops

The child’s mother, Yogeswary Erusan, said that during the Sept 27 incident she was not allowed to be in the room where her son was being quizzed as well as threatened by the police officer over a complaint lodged against a teacher.

“I was not in the room at the police station. I was told to wait outside while my son was questioned,” she told Malaysiakini.

She said according to her 10-year-old son, he was asked whether Yogeswary’s police report against his teacher was true, to which he responded in the affirmative.

He was also asked about his past disciplinary problems and subsequently threatened with arrest if his claims were found to be untrue.

Malaysiakini is withholding the names of the parties involved pending their comments.

“We don’t know if this (the threat) is serious or if they are just trying to frighten the child,” said Malaysian Tamilan Today secretary K Gunasekaran, who is helping Yogeswary with her predicament.

Gunasekaran is seeking legal advice over the matter, particularly from Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights coordinator Edmund Bon.

Bon had been quoted in theSun last month saying that the parents of students from another primary school - the controversial SK Seri Pristana in Sungai Buloh - should sue the police for questioning their child over the “shower room canteen” issue without their consent and claim damages for causing emotional distress.

Yogeswary had lodged a police report against the teacher on Sept 25, claiming that the teacher had hit her son on the right arm with a shoe for not bringing his exercise book.

She claimed that the school’s headmaster had called her to a meeting on the following morning and asked her to retract the report, which she refused.

Yogeswary added the teacher had conceded to have brandished the shoe but did not hit her child with it.

“Although the teacher says she didn’t hit my son and my son said she did, we didn’t see it. But in any case, how can a teacher brandish a shoe at a student?” she said.

Transfer to new school

Gunasekaran said he would take the matter up to the state education department next week, and follow up the matter with the Education Ministry later.

In the meantime, he said the child is being transferred to a new school and his NGO is helping to foot the additional transportation fees.
          
The former disciplinary teacher added that according to the ministry’s regulations, only the headmaster, teacher in charge of students’ affairs, disciplinary teachers, and any other teaching staff authorised in writing by the headmaster may issue corporal punishment against student.

Even so, he said the punishment is limited to caning.

“Definitely not with shoes, handbags, books, or any other thing that teachers have used in the past,” he said.