Dear Victoria

V.I.
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What has become of us?


[Star, Saturday 18 June 2005]

Form Three boy bashed up for being rude to seniors

BY AUDREY EDWARDS AND PARVEEN GILL

KUALA LUMPUR: The bullying scourge has now hit one of the country’s premier schools – Victoria Institution here.

Six students from the school were questioned by Dang Wangi police yesterday over the assault of a Form Three boy.

Two 17-year-old Form Five students had attacked him in school about 10.30am on Thursday, leaving him bruised in the face and injured in the chest and stomach.

Dang Wangi Deputy OCPD Supt Mohd Rodzi Ismail said the 15-year-old boy was beaten up because of a “misunderstanding” between him and the two senior students.

“The two seniors were accompanying a sick schoolmate to the Red Crescent Room when they saw the boy jump queue.

“The seniors questioned the boy on his manners but he was rude to them, saying that it was none of their business, and ended up getting slapped by the seniors,” said Supt Mohd Rodzi.

He said the two seniors then pushed the boy into an empty classroom, where they repeatedly punched him.

“We have recorded statements from the victim, his alleged attackers as well as four witnesses,” Supt Mohd Rodzi said, adding that police have not made any arrest.

A source close to the boy’s family said the slim boy was merely 1.4m tall.

“Both the seniors are taller than the boy, and one of them was plump,” he said.

The source claimed that it was not the first incident of assault in VI, and that there were gangs in the school who used violence to force respect from junior pupils.

According to the source’s version of the incident, the Form Three boy was hauled up by a prefect on Wednesday for talking while queueing up to return to his classroom. He was told to report for detention class next Tuesday.

“But during break time on Thursday, a group of boys dragged him to an empty classroom.

“Two guarded the corridor, one stood at the door, and in the classroom one held his head while two others beat him up.

“The attack lasted about 30 minutes and after that the victim returned to his classroom without having his meal.

“The boy later related the incident to the prefect who had sent him for detention, and also identified the seniors who had ganged up on him,” he said.

However, police denied a prefect was involved and there was no mention that the victim had been sent for detention.

VI was established in 1893 after British administrators realised that the Federated Malay States government needed a good English school.

Local community leaders Kapitan China of Kuala Lumpur Yap Kwan Seng, Loke Yew and K. Tamboosamy Pillai supported the idea.

Among famous personalities who were schooled in VI are the Sultan of Brunei, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz, YTL managing director Tan Sri Francis Yeoh and former national badminton stars Misbun Sidek and brothers Razif and Jailani.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Hon Choon Kim said he had not received any report on the incident.

He expressed shock that such an incident could have taken place in a premier school.

The VI incident is the latest in a spate of reported assaults in schools.

A 13-year-old student of SM Agama Al-Maidah Addiniyyah in Kuala Lipis, Pahang, was assaulted by several students at the school hostel in April and last month.

Mohd Afiq Qusyairi Baharuddin is now warded at KL Hospital with spinal injuries.

In Seremban, eight students of SM Agama Dato’ Klana Petra Ma’amor were charged with killing Muhammad Farid Ibrahim, 16, in the boys’ hostel on March 28 last year.