Mum furious international school treated bullying lightly

The Star

27-05-2025

THE mother of a seven-year-old who was beaten up by four schoolmates was furious after the school described the action as just 'physical contact' and children 'playing', China Press reported.
The incident happened at an international school in Ipoh recently.
According to the mother, two of her son's schoolmates who were trained in karate rained punches on him while another two repea­tedly stomped on his legs.
The victim suffered from injuries which left him in immense pain whenever he walked.
The mother added that thebullies had even threatened to beat him up even more if he were to tell anyone.
On the day of the incident, the school sent an e-mail to all parents describingthe incident as 'physical contact among students' and later invited the mo­ther to attend a meeting at the school five days after the incident.
According to the mother, the school told her that this was not the first time her son had been beaten up and that they would arrange for the perpetrators to apologise.
The mother thought an apology was not sufficient and demanded for two of the bullies – thought to be the ringleaders – to be expelled.
However, the school responded that they should respect the feelings of the children and not make the incident public, sheclaimed.
Furious, the mother walked away from the meeting.
'They want us to respect the bullies and their parents' feelings? Please, has anyone cared about my child's feelings?
'I cannot accept such a sloppy and apathetic way of handling the matter,' she said.
The mother said theschool failed to protect her child from bullies and warned other parents to look out for signs of their children being bullied as well.
She also shared on Facebook screenshots of her chat with one of the bullies' parents who apologised for their child's actions.
Her post received several hundred comments and was shared more than 1,300 times, with many Internet users urging her to make a police report on the matter.
> Taiwanese band Mayday's frontman Ashin was swarmed by a horde of fans while out on a stroll and had to sign 40 autographs before he could get away, Oriental Daily reported.
The 49-year-old, who had just returned to Taipei after a show in Hong Kong, went out shopping alone on one of his days off.
However, a floor employee at a retail outlet recognised the superstar and called out to him, which alerted other shoppers of his pre­sence.They then surrounded the musician and asked for his autograph.
The employee then began gi­­ving out notebooks with their logo to everyone there and invi­ted Ashin to sit down.
Throughout the 30-minute ordeal, Ashin was spotted trembling while giving his autographs.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.