"The Nazgul have done more than land. The HPF video was the lead story on Channel i News tonight." - ICQ SMS received last night.


Student's ticking-off goes from RJC to Net

'Counselling' for teacher whose tirade in class is recorded secretly and posted online; college investigating incident

By Sandra Davie

WHEN a Raffles Junior College teacher hauled up a student and gave him a thorough ticking-off, she did not know that another student was recording it all on video.

(picture) The teacher tears the student's homework, as seen in this video-grab sequence.

He then posted the three-minute video clip on the Internet.

It shows the General Paper teacher telling a male student his homework was 'outdated and irrelevant' and calling him a 'sly, crafty, old rat'.

When he tries to respond, she tells him: 'You are trying to cover up your insolence, your defiance, your laziness, your apathy, your lethargy and your bad attitude.'

She then tears his homework in two.

The boy who captured it all used a personal digital assistant with a built-in-camera. Calling himself 'bw', he put the videoclip on one website, but over the past month, it has been copied onto several others frequented by students.

After The Straits Times called the school, principal Winston Hodge showed the teacher the videoclip. She is not being named here at the school's request.

Mr Hodge said he spoke to the boy with the camera and his parents yesterday. The boy was 'apologetic' and said he regretted his action.

The school was still investigating, Mr Hodge said.

The Internet posting attracted 12 pages of comments on just one website [Ed: Read the SPUG forums for more views on this issue], including some from students criticising the RJC student for recording the incident secretly.

Responding online, he said the teacher should not have 'crucified' the student in front of the class. He said that the boy being scolded was from China and Chinese nationals tended to be weak in General Paper.

He claimed that he went public with his recording to find out what other students thought, not to entertain people or humiliate the teacher.

His principal yesterday appeared to agree with him that the teacher might have gone overboard and said that she had been 'counselled'.

'In the course of a teacher's work, there are times when there is a need to chastise students for tardy work and attitude,' Mr Hodge said.

'I believe this is what happened here, although based on the video, the teacher did lose her temper and went beyond what was necessary.'

RJC students are allowed to use cellphones and palmtops in school, but not in the library, classrooms, laboratories or lecture theatres.

'Responsible use also means requesting permission of the people being photographed or videotaped rather than to do it without them being aware,' said Mr Hodge.

An Education Ministry spokesman confirmed that schools are free to set the rules on the use of cellphones and palmtops by students.

But teachers who were told about the RJC incident told The Straits Times it was time the ministry imposed a ban.

Said an RJC teacher who declined to be named: 'The policy needed a rethink now that electronic devices have advanced to the point that students can intrude into your privacy.

Defending her colleague, she added: 'A teacher has every right to scold a student if he is handing in copied work or sub-standard work.'

Another junior college teacher said: 'Teachers are already under a lot of stress. And now we have students with snooping devices trying to catch them off-guard.'


I suppose it was inevitable, in this age of fast internet transmission, that the press would get wind of this. I didn't expect it to be blown up so greatly, and to make Page 3 news, though. I suppose the New Paper will be doing a story in greater depth soon.

With my shocking, immoral, hippy-libertarian credentials, it will come as no surprise to many that I largely condone, or at least am ambivalent, about this whole matter. If you want to look at it from the "mature" point of view that people love to take, one has to take responsibility for one's actions. If you dare to call a student a "sly, crafty old rat" and tear up his homework in front of a class, you should dare to call him one in front of the whole world. Oddly enough, this taking of responsibility does not seem to apply often when the Powers That Be are concerned.

Granted, teachers do not like scolding students, but sometimes they go overboard. Perhaps this incident might act as a sort of check. Granted, too, that teachers are due their share of privacy. While the video wasn't of her at her cubicle, hard at work over her next nature poem, relaxing at home or even showering (eeks!), this does constitute an invasion of her privacy. At the same time, though, students also have their dignity. Is it not hurtful to be told that you are "trying to cover up your insolence, your defiance, your laziness, your apathy, your lethargy and your bad attitude"? Not knowing the details of the situation, though knowing something of the teacher, I cannot comment, but this is a rebuke of a great magnitude, and is not very professional of an experienced teacher. Further, I am given to believe that this was most assuredly -not- an isolated incident. Also, a classroom is already a semi-private setting. As a poster on the SPUG forum put it:

"if what teachers do in the classroom is "private"... then why bother to come to class at all? the teacher would probably be better off at her grandfather's house, where he/she can do whatever he/she wants in total "privacy". similarly, teachers should not correct students if they see them doing something wrong, as they would be invading the student's "privacy". isn't that lovely."

People are bound to see the posting of this video as a form of revenge taken upon a disliked teacher by a vengeful student. While I have never been under Ho Poh Fun, I get the impression that she is insufferable, and a quick search will reveal that non-professional/academic references to her are invariably distasteful. At least we can take comfort in the fact that there is a tacit admission that Ms Ho might have gone overboard.

As someone else has put it so eloquently in the aforementioned forum, so sparing me the effort of composing a similar paragraph: "having read the article in today's papers about the incident, i can only say that i'm quite disgusted by the slant towards protecting the teacher as i feel that moe and the government should be open, honest and transparent (just like they say in the social studies textbook) about the incident... instead of trying to cover up and throw their weight around trying to cover up things when their dirty laundry gets discovered. i think singaporeans would have a bit more respect for the education system if they at least knew what was really going on behind it (especially with regard to the dirty laundry bit), rather than having all this lovely, utopic information fed to them from little leaflets with the MOE logo. i'm sure that with so many intelligent and mature people in the society, such frank and possibly stark information should not hurt.

the most ridiculous part was the one where a "fellow jc teacher said" that teachers were already under a lot of stress so students should stop secretly recording all these "off-guard" moments to add to their stress. goodness, imagine what school would be like if teachers simply took out their own "stress" (which i can assure you is exponentially less than the stress placed on today's students) on students and simply dismiss these as "off-guard". of course there will be "off-guard" moments; i'm simply saying that we should not close an eye to it and let it pass. if we do, it conversely would mean that students are entitled to rage, storm, tear up their teachers' and classmates' work and probably stomp on their desks while they were at it, just because they were "off-guard" and "under stress" (since teachers are allowed to rage, storm and tear up students' homework when they are "off-guard" and "under stress"). how lovely. i wish the teacher in question a ball of a time "de-stressing" together with her students and i sincerely hopes she is teaching in a jc where the students are all the "ah-beng" kind and will teach a good sharp lesson in professional ethics 101. if we can't weed out this sort of "i'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" kind of thing, students will have to bear the brunt of all this unprofessionalism. and i'm sure that no 17 or 18 year old wants that."

I think PDAs are going to be banned soon. Looks like they didn't learn their lessons from me and my quotes (though a piece of paper would have been just as, if not more effective, though having admittedly less panache) :)

Meanwhile, Mr Qingru had the impression that it was a video of a RJC teacher screwing a girl that was making the rounds. I suppose when he heard me say "RJC teacher" and "screwing a student", he immediately assumed that I was referring to the carnal type of screwing. *sputter* And I was wondering why he was so interested.

Someone asked why it wasn't Yaodong? :) Other comments (highlight to read - if you are easily offended, as I know many of you are, you should skip this portion): "but she's a kind old lady . ive never never seen her this mad", "i hope u had nothing to do with it.." (am I that notorious?), "the teacher deserved it.", "from a relief teacher's point of view...i can see how some teachers can really lose it at times...", "ouch. i think she was very cruel", "man! she did [deserve it]... what a bitch.... now everyone's gonna think rj students are terrorised by teachers like those. she could eat a few for bfast!", "[Me: she has a long track record] maybe that's why she was targeted..hiayh". Others feel she deserved it.

its precisely cos u "know", or rather, think/believe u know... abt the person and circumstances... that you're biased =P u lack distance from the event and the personalities...

he got to play the "heroic vigilant", and is probly piss-proud of his little self now. not to mention blowing it up on the net. if he were a little older n wiser, he could have lodged a private complaint with Mr. Hodge. but no no no, he has to go and make a scene like some toddler in a supermarket on the other hand Ms Ho shouldnt have gotten so full of herself either

Me: if you just complain, maybe they talk to her. or observe her and she puts on an act but they don't know what she does. no proof

well now uy got proof. the real challenge is showing enough maturity to know what to do with the proof and there the student is at fault. cos he went and did something rash that he's now regretting

Me : so he should have showed the proof to the principal?

yup that's what i meant by "launch a complaint" at least try the official channels before acting smart and shaming everybody including himself remotely connected to RJ... many tragedies happen because one "just wants to show off to friends"...

Me: I don't think it was a "show off" kind of thing

hmm... then, a "righteous exposure" kind of thingy?

Me: possibly. more of a "see what ms ho has done now!"

sounds like the pharisees who caught the woman in adultery and brought her to Jesus... i'm not greatly impressed

Me: *shrug* ahh, people have advanced in their stunts since my day *wistful*

ah well but JC students... arent very mature. oh yeah i'm sure they have... the wonders of technology =P in any case, what's doen cannot be undone...


Zhengfei tells me that Weiyi got into MDC. Haha, I didn't know he made it in!