LIVID over reports that students were tormented by certain teachers over “period spot checks”, Suhakam called out Education Ministry (MOE) to act on the matter with haste.
“I wish to remind MOE of its responsibility to protect all students from any sexual harassment and exploitation as envisaged under Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which was ratified by Malaysia in 1995.
“The Ministry is urged to take stern action on teachers and schools’ authorities who have violated children’s rights and dignity.
“They should be charged under Child Act 2001 or Sexual Offences against Children Act 2017,” its children commissioner Prof Datuk Noor Aziah Mohd Awal stressed in a statement.
Malaysiakini recently reported that girls in multiple boarding and religious schools were subjected to “period spot checks” where they are told to physically prove they are menstruating through means which violate privacy.
The measures include showing their blood-soaked sanitary pads, doing swabs of their vagina with either cotton buds, tissue papers or their fingers, or having a teacher, warden or school prefect pat them down at the groin to feel if they are wearing a sanitary pad.
While many political big-wigs and non-governmental organisations (NGO) have expressed disgust over the matter, MOE has yet to issue a statement on it.
This is a crime!
On that note, Noor Aziah said the act was nothing short of an invasion of a child’s rights and is clearly against the law as it involves sexual harassment or abuse.
She added that in pursuant to Article 28 of the CRC, signatory nations are obliged to ensure schools implement discipline in accordance with the rights and dignity of children.
“Under the same Convention too, Article 16, 19 and 36, respectively, states that child has a right to privacy; protection from abuse, violence, and neglect; and protection from other forms of exploitation that includes sexual exploitation and harassment,” Noor Aziah stated.
Moving forward, the Suhakam official urged teachers to remind themselves as their role as educators, and they should not demean and harass students during the learning and teaching process.
“And a clear disciplinary guideline must be developed to ensure such acts are never repeated. Period spot checks, physically invasive spot checks for ‘forbidden items’; body, clothing and intimate relationship, shaming in public; child grooming; molestations; and slapping and pinching of nipples as punishment are prohibited as it is against the law and MOE disciplinary directives,” Noor Aziah said. – April 24, 2021
