Educating children is just one of the many responsibilities a teacher has. In the absence of their parents, children look to their teachers for guidance and nurturance in the school setting.
One teacher in Singapore, however, seemed to miss this memo by setting a bad example for her students.
In a Facebook post by a father named Eric Cheong, he accused one teacher at Zoo-phonics School’s Serangoon Central branch for punishing his son in a “humiliating” manner.
Identified only as “Ms. Theresa,” the teacher allegedly made Eric’s son stand in front of the class for sporting long hair. Not only that, she forced him to wear a girl’s hair clip, “much to the amusement of all the other kids.”
Eric also said that Ms. Theresa threatened to repeat the action the following day if his son didn’t cut his hair.
“I brought my son home, settled him down and tried to reassure him,” his Facebook post said. “His response to me on what happened, in a very firm tone, ‘he wants to die.’ He said he felt like dying when entire class laughed at him.”
According to a Straits Times report, Zoo-phonics director Vincent Teoh has since issued a temporary suspension for Ms. Theresa and that there is also a pending investigation of the matter.
Once the investigation is complete, the school plans to arrange a meeting between Ms. Theresa and Eric’s family.
Read the Facebook post in full on the next page
Mr. Vincent Teoh has also said that the school “does not condone any form of ridiculing a child in front of the class as a form of punishment.” Guilty teachers will be “counseled and reprimanded.”
While the school director said that they do not have any rules when it comes to their students’ haircuts, teachers “may have different expectations on what constitute a neat hair cut.”
“It is the parents’ responsibility to ensure that their child has a reasonably neat hair cut,” said Vincent Teoh. “In the meeting, Mr. Cheong did say he was not free when he was asked by the child to have his hair cut.”
On the other hand, he also said that Ms. Theresa has been receiving letters of commendations from other parents since she joined the school in 2011, and that “majority of the parents” want her to stay with the school.
In Eric’s Facebook post, which has been shared more than two thousand times, he said: “I sincerely believe fair punishments are necessary to maintain discipline in class. A simple verbal warning or even standing for a period of time is acceptable.
“But to humiliate a kid, made to wear a classmate’s hair clip in front of the class, is totally unnecessary and intolerable in a school environment.”
READ: Teachers reveal the moment they knew their students were trouble
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