Look at things in an objective manner

I REFER to the letter “Why you must respect the teacher” (The Star, March 11). I would say the writer was spot on with his comments.

While having coffee in a shop recently, I overheard a group of people talking about the case of the mother who slapped her son’s teacher, which was reported in the media recently, “Mum jailed six months for slapping son’s teacher” (The Star, March 9). They all put the teacher in a bad light.

It was interesting to note the comments made by some in social media who felt that the teacher involved deserved the slapping and should be charged too for pinching the pupil.

What kind of society are we living in that teachers are no longer respected like they used to be? People think anyone can simply slap another, and in this case a teacher, when they didn’t even see the incident themselves.

In the case above, the mother was also fined RM2,000. Some have commented on social media that the jail sentence was too harsh.

Too harsh for slapping someone in the noble profession who was teaching her son, and that too in school in the presence of some people? Too harsh for not owning up to her wrongdoing, lying in court despite being under oath, dragging the case for more than two years and wasting everyone’s time, including the court’s?

I believe that if she had admitted to slapping the teacher right from the start, she could have walked off with a fine.

Some people also sympathised with the mother, saying that she has three children to look after and it was not right to put her in prison for such a long time.

But she should have taken that into consideration before putting herself in the situation.

It is also ironic that some people blame the teacher for pinching the boy. The teacher was not even charged or punished for pinching the boy, so how can she be accused of doing it? There could have been a misunderstanding that led to the slapping, and the mother could have concocted the story in her bid to defend herself and justify her wrongdoing.

It is also ironic that some people can easily believe what the mother said and sympathise with her but not with the teacher. I viewed the teacher’s brief interview on a media Facebook channel right after the judgement. As the saying goes, “berani kerana benar”, and I believe she was bold enough to go all the way with the case only because she did not do anything wrong.

The teacher was willing to endure a two-year wait to get justice. Despite the trauma and stress she went through following the incident, the mother never apologised to her. The teacher had clearly said that if the mother had apologised to her, she would have forgiven her.

Only the teacher knows the agony she and her family suffered during these two years, especially when she clearly denied pinching the boy. She also made it clear that she was transferred to another school because she could no longer work peacefully with the boy still in her class and the mother coming there every day.

Violence is never a solution to any issue. In this case, if the mother believed that the teacher indeed pinched her son, she should have reported the matter to the school administrator.

And why didn’t she lodge a police report?

I feel, and I believe many would agree with me, that this would have been a simple case if the headmistress of the school had called the affected parties and settled the matter. I hope the Education Ministry will investigate what actually happened and prevent such incidents from occurring again.