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School bullying in Singapore

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School Bullying in Singapore Spurs Outrage

Furor reaches all the way to new prime minister​

SEP 18

By: Andy Wong Ming Jun​

The recent uploading of a video onto social media documenting the physical bullying of a teenage student by his peers in Singapore has kicked up unprecedented outrage among parents with kids of school age, with emails calling for state intervention sent not just to the Minister of Education Chan Chun Sing but as far up the chain to Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
The incident, at Bukit View Secondary School in Singapore’s western region, is far from an isolated one in the pre-tertiary state education system, parents say, with the groundswell of outrage illustrative of the extent to which childhood bullying experiences are entrenched within the lives of successive generations of Singaporeans. It is also having an impact on the ruling People’s Action Party, with its concerns over retaining the vote of lower to middle-class parents with children in school because of their wish to raise the country's birth rate. Talk of not voting for the PAP in the coming election is appearing on local online forums because of the way this affair is being handled.
According to state media reports, on September 15 an anonymous user posted a short, brutal video clip described as dating from October 2023 onto social media, calling for it to go viral. In the video, five teenage students of various ages wearing the uniform of Bukit View Secondary School were shown at the void deck of a public housing tower block surrounding another younger schoolmate when suddenly one of them sent a flying kick into the spine of the victim. The video ended with the cries of the victim who was now laid out on the floor after first hitting his head against a nearby wall, with mocking laughter from the onlooking students.
This is not the only incident of physical bullying that caught national headlines in Singapore this year. This August, Singapore police arrested several teenagers from a state-run technical college who were also filmed on video as they slapped, punched, and kicked a victim in a stairwell. Statements by the school’s senior management and the police afterwards decried the bullying, saying disciplinary action up to criminal charges for rioting, unlawful assembly and voluntarily causing hurt would be levied against the perpetrators.
Bullying, many parents say, exists on a large scale at least partly because people are taught to keep quiet about it, to be stalwart in the face of adversity as part of the Singaporean ethos. A 2022 study by the Singapore Children’s Society found that as many as one in four secondary school students surveyed was a victim of bullying, at least twice a month over a span of one school year, and that males and females were just as likely to be bullied. More Malays were victims compared to the other major ethnic groups. Bullies and their victims tended to be of the same gender, the same ethnic group, and in the same class at school.
The original Tiktok video of the Bukit View Secondary School bullying affair went viral on September 16 with more than 600,000 views and 4,000 comments before being mysteriously deleted a day later. Subsequent reposts on other social media sites such as Facebook or Reddit were also taken down around the same time amid speculation on whether the videos had been subjected to either significant reports submitted by individuals with vested interests or government intervention. However, the takedowns came too late to limit the spread within society. Multiple police reports were filed not just by the victim’s parents but angry public members who were themselves parents, with emails calling for state intervention sent not just to the Minister of Education Chan Chun Sing but up the chain to Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
A major accelerant in igniting this rare level of public outrage regarding childhood bullying in school has been what is perceived to be efforts at censorship and lack of accountability from the school’s senior management as well as the wider educational authority. The first reaction by the school on Sunday night was to go into siege mode. Critical comments were deleted from the school’s Facebook and Instagram pages. One-star reviews left on the school’s Google Maps profile criticizing the bullying scandal and subsequent comment censorship efforts were also removed.
A subsequent statement released by its principal Jaswant Singh the next day did little to quell public anger. On Monday, Singh said the incident hadn’t been previously notified to him or his teachers as it occurred outside school premises a year ago. “Following the circulation of the video, the school immediately checked in on the well-being of the student, who did not report any injuries at that time. The school takes a serious view of such misbehavior and will counsel the students involved as well as mete out disciplinary actions where appropriate.”
Online screenshots were also posted by various individuals who had emailed Education Minister Chan showing the terse two-line reply to their petitions for higher-level intervention: “Thank you for your email to Minister Chan. We note your concern and have conveyed it to the relevant department. Regards, MOE Feedback Team.”
The revelation that the victim told neither the school nor his parents of the assault, given the potential for serious injury, for almost a year strongly indicates he must have felt unsafe in reporting the abuse he suffered, considered by critics to be an indictment of the toxic mental health environment in which many children grow and study in. In 2022 Singapore reported that one-third of youths aged 10 to 29 who died between 2018 and 2022 did so from suicide. Studies in 2008 and 2010 released by the Singapore Children’s Society documented the phenomenon of school bullying in the country, with one in four secondary school students experiencing bullying and only a third of the bullied respondents subsequently seeking help.
A Singaporean parent choosing to remain anonymous told Asia Sentinel that, “It’s disappointing to see students bullied and no actions taken without parents’ intervention. If this is going to be a parent’s constant responsibility to initiate any actions in bullying cases, schools have to step up to ensure safety as part of an educational environment. No parent will choose to escalate to higher authorities if the school can contain or address the situation fast enough.”
Various online accounts have expressed similar sentiments, with some parents claiming that they were heavily leaned on by school principals to retract or not make police reports and petitions for ministry-level state interventions when they were frustrated with the lack of accountability, justice, or protection for their children who were bullied in school. Some parents have been driven to take vigilante action to protect their children as a result.
This is demonstrated in April 2019 when a 44-year-old father was jailed for seven weeks after fracturing the rib of a 10-year-old boy who bullied his son in school. In his defense statement, the father revealed that he had previously reported the bullying to a teacher several times only to be so frustrated by the lack of action that he considered switching schools for his son before deciding to take action himself.
The inability of the childhood education system to deal with bullying is demonstrated by the father’s claim that his son’s bully went around after being assaulted telling others in school that “playing with (the boy) will cause them to be fractured by (his) dad." The judge and prosecutor said they couldn’t set a precedent for outraged parents “taking justice into their own hands” for their children no matter how let down they felt by schoolteachers or senior management.
This admonition to “trust the system framework” in reporting bullying incidents to adult authorities ignores the pervasive public narrative exemplified by the latest Bukit View Secondary bullying scandal of systemic reputational damage limitation by school senior leaders in Singapore via public information suppression and evasive, woolly crisis communication that offer no accountability and little hope for justice to the victims.
It also ignores how some adults in positions of authority in schools and daycare centers can themselves be bullies. In May 2024 a woman working at a childcare center was charged with stabbing a six-year-old boy in the head multiple times with a pen, and in August 2023 pre-school teachers working at two different Kinderland centers were arrested for hitting children under their care. In a rare case of accountability under public pressure and scrutiny, the government charged both teachers for child abuse, removed and banned the preschool principal involved from working with children, and restricted the licensing of the two involved to six-month renewal limits on top of a S$10,000 (US$7,716) fine for the preschool company.​
 
Hospital A&E people taught me this.

When your child is physically assaulted or physiologically bullied........

1: See Doctor or A&E, get a simple memo.
2: Using that as a basis, write to MOE, not school, and ask for "Incident report".
3: File police report after obtaining the Incident Report

If you file police report first, nothing will happen even if it is assault. For various reasons, there may not even be an MOE incident report.

Police IO will have inform school first, and let schools assess first. Principals and teachers tend to cover up, especially if the kid is a foreigner or from a well-to-do background. Foreign kids can ask their embassy to step-in

Bear in mind that Schools take MOE Incident Report seriously because this alerts their paymaster, not police cases.
 
We should recruit the fine fine young man in to SPF, so they can give oppies a flying kick when they get pofma. :cool:
 
This is obviously what happens when superintendents, principals and teachers are overpaid.

THEY DON'T CARE!!!
 
Children should be trained in some form of martial arts from young (around P3) so that they can defend themselves when bullied. When I was in sec 2, I was dragged by three bullies to fight at a nearby carpark. I told them it's not gentlemanly for three to fight one. They told me one is enough to beat me up terok terok. They didn't know that I was already a TKD 2nd Dan and also trained in Tai Zhu Chuan. I gave that mother fucker a round house kick on his face and he was down in 3 secs. There was a deep cut on his upper lips and was bleeding profusely. Those two other pussies almost freaked out when they saw so much blood on his shirt. He had to be sent to hospital and got a few stitches. After that day, those fuckers dared not even look me in the eye.
 
School bullying are part and parcel of growing up.
However, we need to look at how physical it is during the assault. If it is getting too violent, I would advise my child to bring a small weapon to school as a safeguard eg penknife . In Times of need use it as a defence tool rather than a counter attack. Those bullies confirm will be scared and back out.
Do not think that I'm crazy to recommend this becos you will be naive if you think you can rely on the school to settle this for you. And do not be stupid to settle this yourself. Look at the eg and the parent ended in 7wks jail. Let the child settle it by themselves with your guidance.

I myself was a school bully KNN KNN
 
Children should be trained in some form of martial arts from young (around P3) so that they can defend themselves when bullied. When I was in sec 2, I was dragged by three bullies to fight at a nearby carpark. I told them it's not gentlemanly for three to fight one. They told me one is enough to beat me up terok terok. They didn't know that I was already a TKD 2nd Dan and also trained in Tai Zhu Chuan. I gave that mother fucker a round house kick on his face and he was down in 3 secs. There was a deep cut on his upper lips and was bleeding profusely. Those two other pussies almost freaked out when they saw so much blood on his shirt. He had to be sent to hospital and got a few stitches. After that day, those fuckers dared not even look me in the eye.
most singaporeans can't fight to save their lives. Anyone competent can easily take them down. But good for you negotiating 1 on 1. The three bullies are cowards to drag 1 person out.
 
Too many feral kids raised by trashy single mothers, they become the school bullies who need to take it out on other kids. :cool:
 
Children should be trained in some form of martial arts from young (around P3) so that they can defend themselves when bullied. When I was in sec 2, I was dragged by three bullies to fight at a nearby carpark. I told them it's not gentlemanly for three to fight one. They told me one is enough to beat me up terok terok. They didn't know that I was already a TKD 2nd Dan and also trained in Tai Zhu Chuan. I gave that mother fucker a round house kick on his face and he was down in 3 secs. There was a deep cut on his upper lips and was bleeding profusely. Those two other pussies almost freaked out when they saw so much blood on his shirt. He had to be sent to hospital and got a few stitches. After that day, those fuckers dared not even look me in the eye.

cannot fight.
If you fight, cannot lose

Edgefield secondary requires all students to learn TKD for four years unless medically exempted.
 
They should have pugil stick fights during PE lessons.

 
cannot fight.
If you fight, cannot lose

Edgefield secondary requires all students to learn TKD for four years unless medically exempted.

TKD nowadays is just a useless sport. During my time, although I was training at a community centre, but I was separately tutored with three others under a Korean dude who was working at the maritime port here. He taught us lots of Hapkido moves too.
 
TKD nowadays is just a useless sport. During my time, although I was training at a community centre, but I was separately tutored with three others under a Korean dude who was working at the maritime port here. He taught us lots of Hapkido moves too.
i also took TKD. My coach told me, because we learned TKD, we must never initiate a fight, increase our tolerance. Then he said, when we need to use it for self defense, take out your belt, grab a chair or weapon to raise our odds.

About 20 years ago, someone kicked the head of a VIP's son and KO him. Since then our local TKD association said cannot hit head.
https://www.stf.sg/news/tournaments-local/amended-kyorugi-competition-rules/
https://nsg.moe.edu.sg/Public/posts...s_of_NSG_Taekwondo_Championship_(Booklet).pdf
 
Hospital A&E people taught me this.

When your child is physically assaulted or physiologically bullied........

1: See Doctor or A&E, get a simple memo.
2: Using that as a basis, write to MOE, not school, and ask for "Incident report".
3: File police report after obtaining the Incident Report

If you file police report first, nothing will happen even if it is assault. For various reasons, there may not even be an MOE incident report.

Police IO will have inform school first, and let schools assess first. Principals and teachers tend to cover up, especially if the kid is a foreigner or from a well-to-do background. Foreign kids can ask their embassy to step-in

Bear in mind that Schools take MOE Incident Report seriously because this alerts their paymaster, not police cases.

Thank you Sir for your clear instructions on how to handle & resolve such brutal issues, & the Threadstarter for starting this important issue, as bullying in schools while common Worldwide, should NEVER, EVER be taken for granted or even deemed as ACCEPTABLE. We are CIVILIZED Humans, not beasts still living in caves or jungles....

ALL parents love their kids, regardless if rich, VIP or poor. Kids are the FUTURE of our Human Race, & while being young & naive, with MUCH to learn in order to mature into adults whom will CONTRIBUTE to our progress & evolution, at least here in Singapore - it WILL be what they had been taught during their FORMATIVE years to achieve desired results....

If not GUIDED properly, they will presume that MIGHT is RIGHT - Jungle Laws, & sadly will only continue in their formative years to bring such HORRIFIC beliefs into Adulthood....

Blame not the Teachers or mgmt staff of schools. They are NOT security personnels. Their role is to teach, but what is taught lays within individuals - kids to accept or discard, or out of stupidity or birth defects - paid no attention.

The BLAME lays within parents, for their lack in teaching their beloved kids SOCIAL Skills to progress & evolve.

Spare the rod or spoil the child, was a way of life centuries back, even today by foolish rich & VIP parents, but today, with our advancement in science, medical science & technologies, there are many other ways to PROPERLY NURTURE a beloved child EFFECTIVELY, with so many books, social media posts & especially govt sanctioned courses to handle a wayward child - let's be frank, EACH Human was a naive child too, & NONE is perfect, let alone me...

Ultimately, when bullying occurs, NEVER ever fight back. Such will only make things worse. Lay down, PRETEND pain, hurt, coma, etc as it is what bullies want to see & such method CONFUSES them, as their motive is to hurt, but not kill as they KNOW the PENALTIES for DEATH to others, even as young as they are.

Then when it is over, as suggested, get medical attention & CRITICALLY - the MOH certification & do as the helpful quoted post suggests. It WILL bring better results, as Singapore is a Rule of Law Nation & NONE - from the PM, a leader of our Nation to the toilet cleaner, each contributing to our society - is above our Nation & Civilization's laws when infractions of such occurs...


 
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Just to share a personal experience over fights:-

I was at a pub one night, drinking & had several ladies with me. Somehow, on the other table, a drunkard guy, probably in his 60s, was not happy, & challenged me to a fight outside the pub, one to one, as he accused me of STARING at him.

I accepted the challenge as a man, but outside, I tried to reason with him, but to no avail.

In the end, when all talks fail, the only course left is action.

He in his drunkard state, told me that although I am far younger than him & bigger, I would have to kill him in this fight as his 'brothers' will avenge him when he is dead, & showed me a tattoo on his back that only once belonged to a defunct gangster org, but now merely made up of foolish street corner youths...

I laughed & told him that his face is recorded by cameras & he better give me his best punch, as I will drop to the floor & play dead, as I knew his motivation was not death to me, but only to avenge his failures in life thru me.

And Street code is that only gang vengeance will be motivated if death or physical harm to one occurs, honored even in the dark underground World, let alone civilized society with enforcement officers known by a telephone call - 999, with the resultant LEGAL actions taken upon med certs & police reports that would put one away for years if not made bankrupt...

Even in his drunkard state, he realized realities, & wisely chose to walk away in the darkness of the dimly lighted back lane, to treasure what's left of his miserable life....
 
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Thank you Sir for your clear instructions on how to handle & resolve such brutal issues, & the Threadstarter for starting this important issue, as bullying in schools while common Worldwide, should NEVER, EVER be taken for granted or even deemed as ACCEPTABLE. We are CIVILIZED Humans, not beasts still living in caves or jungles....

ALL parents love their kids, regardless if rich, VIP or poor. Kids are the FUTURE of our Human Race, & while being young & naive, with MUCH to learn in order to mature into adults whom will CONTRIBUTE to our progress & evolution, at least here in Singapore - it WILL be what they had been taught during their FORMATIVE years to achieve desired results....

If not GUIDED properly, they will presume that MIGHT is RIGHT - Jungle Laws, & sadly will only continue in their formative years to bring such HORRIFIC beliefs into Adulthood....

Blame not the Teachers or mgmt staff of schools. They are NOT security personnels. Their role is to teach, but what is taught lays within individuals - kids to accept or discard, or out of stupidity or birth defects - paid no attention.

The BLAME lays within parents, for their lack in teaching their beloved kids SOCIAL Skills to progress & evolve.

Spare the rod or spoil the child, was a way of life centuries back, even today by foolish rich & VIP parents, but today, with our advancement in science, medical science & technologies, there are many other ways to PROPERLY NURTURE a beloved child EFFECTIVELY, with so many books, social media posts & especially govt sanctioned courses to handle a wayward child - let's be frank, EACH Human was a naive child too, & NONE is perfect, let alone me...

Ultimately, when bullying occurs, NEVER ever fight back. Such will only make things worse. Lay down, PRETEND pain, hurt, coma, etc as it is what bullies want to see & such method CONFUSES them, as their motive is to hurt, but not kill as they KNOW the PENALTIES for DEATH to others, even as young as they are.

Then when it is over, as suggested, get medical attention & CRITICALLY - the MOH certification & do as the helpful quoted post suggests. It WILL bring better results, as Singapore is a Rule of Law Nation & NONE - from the PM, a leader of our Nation to the toilet cleaner, each contributing to our society - is above our Nation & Civilization's laws when infractions of such occurs...



Shut the fuck up.
 
Children should be trained in some form of martial arts from young (around P3) so that they can defend themselves when bullied. When I was in sec 2, I was dragged by three bullies to fight at a nearby carpark. I told them it's not gentlemanly for three to fight one. They told me one is enough to beat me up terok terok. They didn't know that I was already a TKD 2nd Dan and also trained in Tai Zhu Chuan. I gave that mother fucker a round house kick on his face and he was down in 3 secs. There was a deep cut on his upper lips and was bleeding profusely. Those two other pussies almost freaked out when they saw so much blood on his shirt. He had to be sent to hospital and got a few stitches. After that day, those fuckers dared not even look me in the eye.
Good for you.
I hope that you were able to go yo the defence of others who were bullied.
 
For some whom after reading my latter post would think it seemed a drastic action, but in reality, it comes with CALCULATED risks. None knows the Human mind well, not even with our advances in Science, as the neural mind is yet to be known....

However, should the worse happen in the personal experience I had shown, & passing of me occurs, as when all talks failed & only actions is the last resort, the insignificant nobody me IS prepared for the eventuality, as I had always been since going online to show/share/discuss better options in life for Humanity...

Although based upon that experience, should my passing occurs over this mere incident, it would be my small contribution - a debt of Honor, to the progress & evolution of courageous Humankind, compared to the HUGE SACRIFICES made by MUCH of Humanity whom had given our todays, to destroy monsters over centuries - by PUTTING AWAY a barbarian murderer for life, to save the rest of Humanity to progress & evolve under the Rule of Law should such beasts be allowed to roam freely, to hurt, bully & harm others..

ONE is an EXPONENTIAL mathematical number.... AND I am not the only one after my passing...another WILL take my place, as had been for centuries, to uplift lives, to fulfil MANIFEST Humanity's DESTINY to the stars as promised eons ago....
 
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School bullying are part and parcel of growing up.
However, we need to look at how physical it is during the assault. If it is getting too violent, I would advise my child to bring a small weapon to school as a safeguard eg penknife . In Times of need use it as a defence tool rather than a counter attack. Those bullies confirm will be scared and back out.
Do not think that I'm crazy to recommend this becos you will be naive if you think you can rely on the school to settle this for you. And do not be stupid to settle this yourself. Look at the eg and the parent ended in 7wks jail. Let the child settle it by themselves with your guidance.

I myself was a school bully KNN KNN
I was being asked by sec5 ncc senior where I played. I was a sec 2 student. Walked past me and purposely bang into me asked me to meet him outside after school. I and my friends felt angry That time I already mixing with my neighbourhood kids from nearby billard place. That time was still payphone and pagar era. I went to canteen auntie to borrow her Ericsson phone n called my friend. Then my school friends called their older siblings. Then during after school bullies long pants waiting outside. But my outside friends and my classmates siblings also outside. It was like 20 plus persons vs 5 bullies. Bullies changed their tone and say joking only. Face pale , I took a small rock from ground n smack straight at his left forehead, from that day they never dare to walk past me and even offered to buy us food and clear our plates. We became friends after that. He taught me 不打不相识.
 
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