Art teacher found guilty of molesting 13-year-old student in school

SINGAPORE: An art teacher was on Monday (Jul 16) found guilty of molesting a male student thrice on the same day in 2016.

The 38-year-old teacher, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, taught art to students in Secondary 2, 3 and 4.

He was the teacher in charge of the Higher Art O-Level subject at a school, which cannot be identified, and was the victim's art teacher.

He had claimed trial to three charges of outrage of modesty - he squeezed the boy's chest, touched the boy's buttock and his groin in the school's art room on Feb 17, 2016.

The victim, then 13 years old, was passionate about art and considered it his favourite subject before the offences were committed, the prosecution said. 

In Secondary 2, the boy was elected the art representative of his class. He saw the teacher at least once or twice a week, both during classes and to conduct his duties as art representative.

BOY STAYED BACK TO WORK ON ART PROJECT ON DAY OF OFFENCES

On the day of the offences, the victim had stayed back to work on a group art project. He had been with two other students, but they left early at about 2.30pm. There were other students in the room, but they were not seated near the victim.

Sometime after 3pm, the art teacher went to the boy and squeezed his chest. He told the boy that he looked like a character from Japanese hentai manga, or pornographic comics.

The boy was shocked and felt uncomfortable.

At around 4pm to 5pm, the boy carried the sculpture he was working on into the Higher Art room to ask his teacher for guidance.

While helping the boy with the sculpture, the teacher asked him whether he had a girlfriend.  He followed up by asking him a sexual question, making the boy feel uncomfortable.

The teacher then slid his hand up the boy's leg and molested him.

The boy later said he was "shocked beyond words and ... stood rooted to the ground".

"WHY? TOO SHY?"

The teacher asked: "Why? Too shy?". He then withdrew his hand from the victim's shorts.

The boy backed away from his teacher, but the teacher pulled the boy towards him by his wrist and molested him again.

The boy was shocked and did not say anything, but used his hand to try and push his teacher's hand away.

He left the room carrying his sculpture, while the teacher repeated: "Why? Too shy?"

Later that night, he told his mother and sister what happened. His mother called the form teacher, who alerted the school's management.

On Feb 18, 2016, the principal of the school had a meeting with the art teacher and the vice-principal. 

According to the principal, the teacher appeared "shocked and remorseful" and told her "he knew he was overboard" in his interactions with the victim.

BOY NOW WARIER OF TEACHERS

After the molestation, the boy has been "more wary of others, especially teachers", the prosecution said. 

He also feels very uncomfortable when in a room with only a teacher, as he is concerned that the incident may repeat itself, and does not like art as much as before, due to his "bad memories of the incident of molest".

The prosecution said the victim was an unusually convincing witness who gave credible and consistent testimony, while the teacher was "a disingenuous and evasive witness whose testimony was incredible and rife with inconsistencies". 

District Judge John Ng on Monday found the teacher guilty of three charges of outrage of modesty, saying that he had "no doubt based on the totality of the evidence before me" that the teacher was guilty.

He will be back in court for sentencing next month.

In a statement to Channel NewsAsia on Monday evening, the Ministry of Education said the teacher was suspended from duty in February 2016. Disciplinary action will be taken against him, the ministry added. 

"Educators who fail to comply with our standards of conduct and discipline will be subjected to disciplinary action. In serious cases, they may be dismissed from the service," said a spokesperson.

"Anyone convicted of a serious crime will no longer be accepted in our schools."

For outraging the modesty of a person under 14 years of age, he can be jailed for up to five years, fined, caned, or given any combination of the three penalties.

Just last week, a former physics teacher who had an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old student was sentenced to 16 months' jail on three charges of committing or trying to commit indecent acts with a child or young person.