BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Friday, August 6, 2010

The principal of Chung Hwa Middle School (CHMS) Bandar Seri Begawan has denounced the behaviour of two of its students shown in a video bullying a junior in a toilet.

Speaking to The Brunei Times, Kho Guik Lan said the school management is evaluating the incident and is asking for calm and patience among parents and students concerned. The video, which was uploaded on YouTube by an unidentified source earlier this week, shows two Year Eight students behaving in a threatening manner, demanding the junior to apologise for something that had happened earlier. The incident was believed to have happened sometime in May this year. Kho said school management needs time to evaluate the situation before making a final decision. “The students have been suspended for one week while we investigate the incident,” said Kho, who warned against being too strong-handed in dealing with the issue. “It will be very easy to just expel the kids for what they have done, but education is not all about punishing. We also need to understand the students’ problems before we make any decision,” Kho said. “I like to see it more as a really bad prank done by the students. The students had some misunderstanding, and they made a very bad decision by trying to solve their differences in that manner.” \While the principal seemed reluctant to talk about expelling the students, she did not exclude the option during the interview.

“Preferably, we hope to speak to the parents or guardians of both students before making any decision,” she added.

School management has been unable to get in touch with the guardian of one of the students involved in the incident.

“We’ll make our decision next week after considering all factors. What we want the public to know is that we are treating this very seriously, which is why we need time to come up with a very thorough consideration.”

Recorded at slightly more than one minute, the video shows one main physical contact when one of the seniors slapped the junior’s stomach, which caused the junior to hold his stomach in pain. Laughter could also be heard from other students who witnessed the incident. The students were also heard making some verbal threats of beating the junior. The junior was forced to apologise to one of the seniors. The video ended with both seniors shaking hands with the junior and promising not to pursue the matter further.

Kho said that after viewing the video on Monday, the school immediately requested YouTube to remove it for the negative vibes that the video is spreading. YouTube promptly obliged. However, the video has been circulating in blogs and social networking websites.

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