MOE & AWARE Responded After Netizens Said Boy Was ‘Lucky’ When Teacher Sexually Exploited Him

In case you haven’t heard about the latest scandal that’s been the talk of the town of late, a secondary school teacher’s been arrested for sexually exploiting one of her students, a 15-year-old minor. Yep, you read that right.

The pair had apparently been dating for 9 months and shared many moments together, including going for a staycation in Geylang where she had the boy perform sex acts on her and vice versa between 28 Nov 2016 and 2 Dec 2016.

She’s since been sentenced to two years and nine months of jail time for sexually exploiting a young person as well as having a minor sexually penetrate her, although it was consensual for the boy as well.

Comments Galore

Granted, the news has been greatly shared on social media and garnered many comments from netizens on Facebook and other platforms.

Many commenters, of course, slammed the teacher with disdain for performing such an act towards a student of hers.

And he’s a minor no less.

But some commenters will leave you wondering if people really do think before they decide to speak.

People were questioning how pretty the teacher was, and someone on Channel News Asia’s Facebook page even commented: “I will be a proud dad if it happened to my son.” Please, don’t ever become a father.

Another commentator said: “We all want this kind of teacher, don’t we?”

Other comments on forum Hardware Zone included: “How come not my teacher?” and others saying they were envious of the boy and that he was a “lucky chap”.

What goes on in these people’s minds for real?

MOE Responds

Channel NewsAsia then emailed the Ministry of Education (MOE) asking about their thoughts on these commenters.

Obvious to say, they didn’t like it one bit and shared why these kinds of comments should not be tolerated and should not be made regarding this situation.

They responded saying that the integrity of the teaching profession and the trust placed on teachers in all their interactions with students is a “serious matter” and “should never be trivialised”.

“There are systems in place for students to inform school management if they encounter situations which make them feel unsafe,” said Mr Thomas Wong, divisional director of HR solutions and capabilities at MOE.

He further emphasised that MOE “will not hesitate to take disciplinary action against those who fail to adhere to our standards of conduct and discipline, including dismissal from service.”

AWARE Joins In Too

Ms Corinna Lim, executive director of the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE), said that such comments highlight the need for more public education. The online response may actually prevent other victims to want to seek help.

“Clearly, more public education is needed to combat widespread misunderstanding about the sexual abuse of children, such as the myth that men and boys always consent to sexual contact and that their sexual exploitation is not real or severe,” she added.

She stressed that exploitation by authority figures is extremely harmful and must be taken seriously regardless of the genders of the parties involved.

“Joking comments that trivialise the experience may contribute to victims’ feelings of self-blame, confusion and fear of judgment, deterring others from making disclosures to seek help.”

Basically, the victims will feel bad when they read these comments, seen as the public opinion, and start to blame themselves for the situation, and when they’re stressed enough, they may be afraid to seek help for they are afraid of getting judged by the public.

Betrayal Of Trust Causes Problems

Institute of Mental Health (IMH) senior clinical psychologist Kenny Liew also agreed with the above sentiments and said that being abused by a person in a position of trust can cause a variety of emotional and psychological problems, no matter what gender the victim is.

Mr Liew said that some may develop psychological difficulties and direct it towards themselves, as well as become withdrawn, depressed or ashamed and inferior.

They might also experience “fears and anxieties towards certain people or situations and may actively avoid them”. The person suffering the abuse may have trust issues where they find it difficult to trust others and end up isolating themselves socially.

The next time you want to leave a comment regarding issues such as this one, let’s hope you will remember the impact that words may possibly have on victims and practice mindfulness before speaking so our society can be better than it is now.