Man Jailed For Fracturing Ribs Of Boy Who Bullied His Son After School Allegedly Dismissed His Concerns

By
Andrea Tan
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Bullying is a particularly insidious problem. Sometimes it arises because of specific, nearly understandable reasons.

But sometimes, especially among younger students, it can be completely unwarranted.

The more subtle, underground type of bullyings like the spreading of rumours and social isolation is truly difficult to address.

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However, when the aggressor is identified, this is no longer an excuse. The school’s anti-bullying policy should be automatically put into action once the misconduct is reported.

But clearly, that’s not what happened here and an enraged parent was spurred into taking matters into his own hands…

…and was then sentenced to seven weeks in jail on 29 April 2019.

The Bullying

The people involved in this case are Tan Chin Tai, a registered adjunct teacher in MOE (ah, the irony), his 10-year-old son and his classmate, who had been bullying him.

The two boys and their school are kept anonymous because of a gag order on identifying the victim.

Since early 2017, Tan’s son had reportedly been the target of his classmate’s bullying.

His torment includes physical abuse like pushing him and taunting him to fight back, as well as verbal abuse.

He also isolated the boy by threatening to attack other students who engaged with him.

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Tan knew about the treatment and had actually brought this up with the school. But it seems bully’s actions were dismissed on the basis that he had anger management issues.

Education institutes at its finest, people.

This led Tan and his wife to consider transferring their son to another school.

In the meantime, Tan was obviously frustrated and worried about his son’s well-being.

What Happened

Near the middle of 2017 on 7 July, Tan was fetching his son from school when he happened to spot the bully.

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And he lost his cool.

Tan approached his son’s longtime tormentor and grabbed the handle of his bag, causing the boy to stumble backwards.

He then placed his hand on the left side of the boy’s chest and shoved him against a nearby refuse shed.

“Just because you are bigger in size, you can bully others… since you can bully my son, I can bully you.”

Later in the evening, the bully experienced some pain in his left chest where he was shoved, made a police report, then went to the hospital to find out that he had a small fracture on his left rib.

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The Charges

As mentioned, Tan had been sentenced to seven weeks’ jail, convicted on the charge of voluntarily causing hurt

The Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Wei Ming said it was a case of an adult not behaving like one, resorting to attacking a child, a vulnerable victim.

Indeed, as the DPP says, Tan should not have taken justice into his own hands. Violence shouldn’t be the solution and an adult is expected to be better at controlling themselves.

The Aftermath

While Tan pays his dues, what about the bully?

There was no word on any disciplinary action taken, in fact, Tan’s little vengeance on his son’s part didn’t even seem to work.

The purported bullying resumed, now with the added taunt that the boy’s father deserved to “go to jail and be caned 1,000 times” while telling other children that playing with the boy would “cause them to be fractured” by Tan.

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So, it’s not Tan’s place to take action, it’s the school’s. They probably tried addressing the issue, and have probably been trying for a long time, but it’s obviously futile.

In the meantime, if this has happened in the 90s, I’m guessing most parents would just go, “You kena bullied? Don’t know how to fight back ah?”

#Strawberries

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Andrea Tan
Email: [email protected]