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I still remember being 13, sitting in my English class when my teacher, Mr Wong, suddenly said with a grin, “Imagine you’re taking a shower, alone… applying soap all over your body...”
I felt uncomfortable with his remarks, so I went home that day and told my dad. Dad called the headmaster instantly and reported the matter. The result? Nothing.
The next day, the teacher in charge of Student Affairs was sent to our class and we were reminded that what happens in school stays in school - that outsiders wouldn’t understand our “school culture.”
Years later, when my daughter was in Standard 3, history repeated itself.
A group of parents - myself included - reported a male teacher, Encik Sobri, who kept pinching girls’ nipples as punishment, while boys got pinched on their bums. The result? “Must be a misunderstanding,” said the headmaster.
Today, so many issues are happening in our schools - bullying, rape, even murder. But when it involves a teacher as the perpetrator - and not a student - it alarms differently.
Because the very people entrusted to guide and protect our children are the ones violating that trust.
Teachers who sexually assault kids
Now, imagine this.
You send your child off to a two-day training camp - one of those school programmes meant to “build character” and “instil discipline.” You pack their bags, wave them goodbye, and trust the adults in charge to keep them safe.
Then, at 4.30 in the morning, while your child is fast asleep in a dorm room, an “ustaz” creeps in and touches them.
This not a scene from a horror film. This is what allegedly happened in Balik Pulau, Penang last weekend, when a 33-year-old facilitator was arrested for sexually assaulting four 12-year-old boys during a two-day school programme. Reports say he even sent lewd messages to two of them afterward, leaving them emotionally scarred.
And this isn’t an isolated case. Just last month, a former teacher was charged under the same Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 for similar crimes. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison, caning, and an additional five years under Section 16.
Yet despite such heavy penalties, these cases keep surfacing.
So what the heck is going on?
Ticking time bombs
Our schools have become ticking time bombs with so many recent issues. But when the very person trusted to guide and protect ends up being the culprit, it cuts deeper. Because schools are supposed to be safe spaces. Educators, teachers, counsellors, facilitators, ustazs, wardens - whatever you call them - are supposed to be role models.
When that trust is broken, it’s not just the child who suffers - the entire system fractures.
And that’s the real problem, isn’t it? We don’t treat these cases as red flags - we treat them as inconveniences.
But what I really want to know is: Who are we hiring to educate and guide our children?
How are these people screened before being trusted with children - or worse, allowed to spend nights supervising them? Are background checks even mandatory, or do we just hand over our kids to anyone called cikgu ?
At what point do we stop reacting and start reforming?
Because if schools and training centres can no longer guarantee safety, maybe it’s time we stop calling them learning institutions. Right now, they’re starting to look more like hunting grounds - and our children, the prey.
Maybe the real lesson our children are learning… is that even trust can be dangerous.
Fa Abdul (fa.abdul.penang@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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