Stop sexual assaults in schools

Free Malaysia Today

6 days ago

Recently, a retired school head expressed concern to me over rising cases of teachers sexually assaulting their students.
He said such cases reflected badly on the teaching profession. What was worse, he said, was that some of them were teachers of religion.
The retired headmaster, in his 80s, said that during his years as a teacher and later as a headmaster, he had never come across a case of a teacher raping or sodomising his student.
'What is happening to our teachers?' he asked in anguish.
To my argument that there were only a few such cases and that the majority of teachers were decent people, he replied: 'You are not a career teacher, you won't understand. Even if one teacher does something like this, it tarnishes the entire profession.'
He went on to give me a lecture on the qualities of a good teacher.
But he is right. Although the primary role of the teacher is to educate, he or she is also expected to set an example and become a role model of sorts to young and impressionable minds.
The teacher's influence extends beyond the classroom, beyond the textbooks to the personal development of students. A good teacher helps students to also develop life skills and the confidence to meet challenges that he or she might face in life.
Parents expect teachers to be their substitutes in school; to watch over them, protect them and guide them. Society expects no less.
Which explains why two deputy public prosecutors argued in court on July 30 for a substantive sentence against a teacher who sodomised some of his students.
Norazihah Asmuni and Nurul Balkis Zunaidi told the Seremban sessions court that one Khairi Fitri Baharom, 38, as a teacher and warden, should have protected his pupils, but took advantage of his position to sexually assault them instead.
The court subsequently sentenced Khairi to six years in prison and four strokes of the rotan on 12 counts of sexual assault against seven pupils aged nine to 12 at the time.
On six of the charges, Khairi was accused of committing carnal intercourse against the order of nature without consent against five of the pupils. The remaining charges were of sexually assaulting six of the pupils.
All 12 offences were said to have been committed at a boarding school in Jempol and at a house in Kuala Pilah between March 2024 and January 2025.
Earlier, on June 12, Khairi had been sentenced to six years' jail and two strokes of the rotan after pleading guilty to three charges of sexual assault, sodomy and unnatural intercourse against two boys at the warden's room in the school in Jempol between 2023 and January this year.
I cannot comprehend how a teacher and a parent figure can bring himself to perform such acts.
Neither could the headmaster who spoke to me. As he pointed out, the fact that the perpetrator was a religious teacher made it even worse.
On his insistence, I did a random search of stories carried by FMT to see how many cases of sexual assault involving teachers had been taken to court this year.
On July 17, primary school teacher Ariffin Nor, 53, in Negeri Sembilan, pleaded not guilty in the Seremban sessions court to three charges of sexually assaulting a nine-year-old female pupil last year.
On May 7, primary school teacher Abdul Halim Ismail, 37 pleaded not guilty in the Seremban sessions court to two counts of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old male pupil at a hotel in Port Dickson on June 28 and 29, 2023.
On April 30, Bernama reported that Muzaidi Mohamad, the headmaster of a tahfiz school in Kelantan, pleaded not guilty in the sessions court to five counts of sodomising three male students aged between 12 and 15 over the past three years.
On April 28, Lowoyon Elod Jiviol, 33, a primary school teacher in Kudat, Sabah, pleaded not guilty to eight charges of committing physical sexual assault on four Year 5 pupils – two girls and two boys- between Dec 31, 2024 and Jan 3 this year in a classroom at the school.
On April 22, a former assistant bowling coach was ordered by the Kuala Terengganu High Court to begin serving a six-year prison sentence after losing his appeal against his conviction for sexually assaulting a Sukma athlete. Mat Salleh Jalani, 62, was found guilty on May 16 last year of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy at a housing estate in Marang in March 2018.
On Feb 13, an assistant madrasah teacher, Faizal Man, 45, was sentenced to 10 years' jail and 30 strokes of the rotan by the Kota Tinggi sessions court in Johor after he pleaded guilty to 15 charges of molesting and performing oral sex on a 14-year-old teenager in a bedroom at the madrasah's surau at Air Papan, Mersing, from the middle of May to Oct 21, 2024.
On Feb 4, a teacher at a religious secondary school in Perlis, Ahmad Fairus Abu Zaik, 44, claimed trial to five counts of sexual assault on two 13-year-old male students separately at the school in 2023.
On Jan 15, teacher Fuad Abd Wahab, 33, claimed trial in the Melaka sessions court to five counts of sexual assault on two 16-year-old male students three years ago.
On Jan 14, teacher Azhar Mohamad, 44, pleaded not guilty in the sessions court in Melaka with sexually assaulting two female Year Six pupils, aged 12, at a primary school in Melaka Tengah on Jan 8.
Although most of the cases I've mentioned above are before the courts and the persons named have not been found guilty, it should give us an indication of the situation in Malaysian schools.
There were many more such cases before the courts in 2024 and earlier.
I fear to think how many cases go unreported by victims.
While searching for such cases, I came across a November 2021 report on sexual harassment, bullying and abuse in schools that chronicled the testimonies of 770 respondents on a platform called Save the Schools MY and which was analysed by the All Women's Action Society (AWAM).
Briefly, the report said figures of authority in school were the perpetrators of 41.1% of the cases reported by victims in the survey. At least 87.1% of the perpetrators were men.
AWAM said 89.2% of all sexual harassment violations occurred in primary and secondary institutions of learning and that 81.4% of sexual harassment violations were not disclosed or reported to anyone.
According to the report, there were 10 rape cases, three of which were allegedly committed by teachers.
What does all this say about the quality of teachers today? What does this say about the recruitment of teacher trainees? What does this say about school administrations?
Is the education ministry as concerned about this situation as my headmaster friend?
Perhaps it is time to more carefully vet those entering teacher training institutions. Perhaps school administrators should keep a better watch over their teachers. Perhaps there should be constant in-house reminders to teachers to be good role models.
The fact is, parents trust teachers and they trust the government to protect their children attending schools. Sexual abuse must never occur in a school, and certainly not at the hands of a teacher.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.