News

Education Minister Steps In To Scold Mee Toh School Students Who Bullied Malay Classmate; The School Has Responded

2020-03-11 , 9:47 am

Last Updated on 2020-03-12 , 7:48 pm

In case you didn’t get the memo, bullying is bad. In fact, it’s not just bad. It’s unacceptable.

And as parents, we have to teach the kids that it’s wrong.

After all, while some might think: aiya, it’s just kids being kids, these “kids being kids” actions might kill someone.

And it’s not just us thinking this way.

Even Education Minister Ong Ye Kung thinks the same way too.

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung Scolds Bullies From Mee Toh Primary School

This is Education Minister Ong Ye Kung.

Typically, you can find this man always smiling in photos (also because it’s kind of his job).

But this genteel man isn’t afraid to share his thoughts on the most sensitive issues in Singapore, like the bullying incident that went viral on Twitter.

Sister Being Bullied in School

On 6 Mar 2020, Twitter user @4YSLZ took to the social media platform to share her sister’s story of being bullied in school.

It was her sister’s birthday.

But instead of well-wishes and happiness, one of her classmates threw a note into her face as a ‘birthday present’.

Join our telegram channel for more entertaining and informative articles at https://t.me/goodyfeedsg or download the Goody Feed app here: https://goodyfeed.com/app/

And the messages within were as ugly as it could get:

One called her “stupid” and “dumb”, although the writer spelt the latter wrongly.

While another said she’s “ugly” and made the writer “puke”.

And according to her, this wasn’t the first time it happened.

She added that she saw her sister returning home with her uniform vandalised, witnessed her being cyberbullied and called names.

Upon further query, she revealed that the school her sister is studying at is Mee Toh School.

Mee toh school! I rly hope with more people speaking up about it, they will finally do smth abt it & not ignore it like they always do

— batakab. (@4YSLZ) March 6, 2020

Education Minister “Dismayed” and “Troubled”

On 10 Mar 2020, Mr Ong uploaded a Facebook post about the incident. He said that he was “dismayed” and “troubled” to learn about the bullying case at Mee Toh School.

“Bullying is wrong and cannot be tolerated anywhere, especially in schools,” he wrote.

He added that no matter it doesn’t matter whether the students are simply being “mischievous” or that they are “Primary 5 students”, the incident is unacceptable.

And the fact that the student felt it was because of her race, that made it “even more unacceptable”.

School Will Follow Up

Previously, the victim’s sister said that she hopes her tweet will finally make the school “stop ignoring such incidents”.

Well, this time, the school won’t be able to do so.

The Education Minister also guaranteed in his Facebook post that the school will follow up with the incident.

The students involved will “understand the seriousness of their actions” and “appropriate disciplinary actions” will be meted out.

Mee Toh School Has Responded To The Incident

The principal says that they are aware of the incident and have met up with the bullied student’s mother.

The school takes “every incident” seriously and will follow through with disciplinary action, she said.

As for the Primary 5 pupils involved with the incident, she assures that they will be punished.

It was added that the school will continue to work towards enabling their students to “build healthy and respectful peer relationships for their overall emotional and social well-being”

It’s For All The Bullied Students in S’pore

As for the Twitter user who first brought this incident to light, she said that she will no longer comment on the incident unless it’s “beneficial or constructive to the situation”.

However, she wants the conversation about bullying to be “not just for her sister”, but for all the bullying cases in Singapore.

okay from now on, I will not be entertaining any tweets pertaining this matter unless it is constructive or beneficial to the situation. but lets all not forget that this isn’t only abt my sister, its for all the bullying cases that has happened or is still happening.

— batakab. (@4YSLZ) March 7, 2020

Parents, if you haven’t, it’s time to teach your kids about the consequences of bullying. Stop raising durians, start raising great people who would do great things in the future.

Hands-off parenting or helicopter-parenting are things of the past liao.

And to anyone reading this who’s currently being bullied, just know that while it feels like you’re alone, you’re actually not.

As @4YSLZ has shown, bullying isn’t just wrong, it’s intolerable.