2007 05: ‘Teacher assaulted me for talking in class’

NST online. Local News. 18/05/07

PENDANG: A Form Three student claims he was assaulted by a teacher yesterday.

The 15-year-old said the teacher punched him in the face and kicked him in the buttocks in the incident about 9.30am. He said the teacher locked him in an office for several hours until 12.30pm.

"About 30 students witnessed the assault in the classroom," he said outside the Alor Star Hospital, where he received outpatient treatment for bruises and a sore left eye.

The boy said the teacher lost his temper when he caught him talking to a classmate."I know he is very strict and serious in class, but I didn’t expect him to beat me up for talking to a girl." He said after the teacher punched him, he was taken to an unoccupied office and given some ice cubes to reduce the swelling in his left eye.

"He also locked the room so that nobody could see what I was doing inside," he said.

The boy’s mother, from Kampung Wat in Padang Pusing, said the teacher overreacted.

"He may have committed an offence by talking to another student during class, but the punishment was unjustified. "How can a teacher assault a student for such a minor offence?"

The 45-year-old housewife has lodged a police report.