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The recent case where a student stabbed another student in Bandar Utama has been sitting heavy on my mind. The fact that the boy walked calmly into school with a knife in his bag before using it to kill the girl - that’s the part that really gets me.
After the incident, schools suddenly started doing spot checks. Primary school kids had their scissors taken away. Secondary students had their phones confiscated. And even metal detectors are now being brought in to facilitate spot checks at school entrances.
But here’s what bothers me: it took a tragedy for these safety measures to be taken seriously. It took orders from the top - Education Director-General, Deputy Minister - to remind schools to do what should’ve been basic duty. If regular unannounced spot checks, surprise inspections and other safety protocols are only happening now because someone got killed, what does that say about how “safe” our schools have been all this time?
Spot checks used to be a norm
When I was schooling in the 80s, I was a prefect - later, head prefect - and spot checks were part of the job. After getting instructions from the discipline teacher, I’d gather the prefects for a quick briefing, and we’d start.
Sometimes we’d check students - their uniforms, accessories, hairstyles. Sometimes their bags, pencil cases, even classroom drawers and cabinets. Trust me, students could get creative when it came to hiding things.
Spot checks used to be a norm. They were an easy and effective way to make sure students followed the rules. Everything we confiscated would go to the teachers. Small things like toys and game cards ended up in a drawer in the staff room. Bigger things like romance novels and packed home clothes got the attention of the headmaster and parents.
The weirdest thing I ever found was a condom pack. At 16, none of us knew what it was except for one prefect. We were more curious about how she knew than the thing itself.
The most memorable, though, was a photo album of a student and her boyfriend taken during what was supposed to be a school trip. She got an earful from the teacher, and later, a meeting with her parents and the headmaster.
Spot checks weren’t meant to humiliate students or to invade their privacy. They were meant to protect them. Spot checks were reminders that boundaries existed - and that the adults actually cared enough to check.
Sure, spot checks might not have solved every problem, but they definitely reduced them. They kept everyone on alert. More importantly, they showed that the school was in control - that discipline mattered, and that there were consequences for breaking rules.
Now we’re checking for weapons
When I read about that boy walking calmly into school with a knife, I can’t help but think - somewhere along the way, we stopped checking. And maybe that’s when things started to go wrong.
Throughout the years I’ve heard about students punished for wearing wrist-bands, key-chains and, of course, smartphones which are not even turned on.
While schools kept zooming in on hemlines and hairstyles, they stopped looking inside bags. Why ah?
If it takes a Deputy Minister to remind schools to conduct regular, unannounced spot checks, then clearly - something’s not right. Since when do schools need ministerial permission to check students’ bags? You’d think discipline was still part of their job description.
And yet, the moment a directive is given, suddenly we see reports of all sorts of treasures being unearthed - scissors, stickers, toys, handphones. At this rate, teachers must feel like airport security officers, minus the uniform and the pay grade.
Still, even when we confiscate, we should know what to confiscate. In one recent spot check at a primary school, teachers took away small scissors. I mean, yes, they’re sharp, and technically can hurt someone - but come on lah, it’s a stationery item! What next, confiscate rulers because they can slap someone? Belts can also become weapons - so are we going to make students hold up their pants with hope and faith now?
While schools seem so clueless in their spot checks, I wonder how those with metal detectors are going to handle the checking. Are we going to confiscate everything metal in their possession? Are we depending on our security guards to decide what they deem as weapons?
Let’s face it - we used to check for toys. Now we’re checking for knives. Clearly, we need a better system.
So what now?
These safety measures we see today are not routine. They are reactive - panic moves made because many schools were caught off guard and only acted after blood was spilled. So pardon me if I feel like these spot checks are more about optics - teachers, prefects, and guards scrambling to harass small offenders just to look like they’re in control.
Schools must embed regular, unannounced spot checks into their culture - not as a headline-grabbing reaction, but as part of everyday safety.
Parents and teachers have to reclaim their roles - the role of seeing, of listening, of intervening early. Because someone already died.
And that death should not just be a story we read. It should be the wake-up call that forces us to check again - not just their bags, but the kind of world we’re letting our children walk into.
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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