For many students, one of the best things about heading to school is being able to meet friends and create memories together. And in some cases, some of these memories may involve adolescent pranks or gags for the sake of cheap thrills. While there are times when such foolish behaviour would appear as ‘funny’ or ‘entertaining’, it’s definitely not right when the behaviour involves inflicting harm on others or damaging public property.
Students who vandalised school property, ordered to attend counselling and community service.
Over the weekend, a video was heavily circulated online where it showed a couple of students vandalising and destroying school property. Local newspaper Sinar Harian reported that the incident happened in a secondary school located in Seberang Perai, where some students were caught destroying classroom doors and chairs.
One of the students were also caught standing on a chair propped up on a table in order to reach up for the ceiling fan and breaking the fan blades. Following the incident, the school was able to identify the students before rounding them up and contacting their parents/guardians to discuss on the matter.
In response to the incident, Penang’s state education department (JPN) has revealed that they are in the process of assessing the damage caused and the students who were involved the incident will be attending various rehab programs that includes community service and consistent counselling sessions.
Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek has highlighted the issue mentioning that the school has alerted their counselling team in order to assist with the matter, stressing that such behaviour from among students should not be occurring, reports Berita Harian.
“We hope that netizens could stop circulating the videos that reveals the identity of the children and their school”, she said.
Sidek stressed that the intervention measures being carried out is crucial to provide the implicated students with the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and better themselves, while also setting an example to others. She has also urged those on social media against revealing the identities of the students in the video or the location of the school for the sake of their privacy and ongoing counselling progress.
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