Montfort school fight: MOE may put out facts if 'one-sided story' posted online, says Maliki

SINGAPORE: Schools prefer to handle fighting or bullying incidents sensitively but the Ministry of Education (MOE) may have to share facts of the case if a "one-sided story" is posted online, Second Minister for Education Maliki Osman said on Friday (Mar 7). 

When any incident of fighting or bullying is shared online through a social media post or video, usually a one-sided story is presented from a "particular perspective", he added. 

“While we would hope that members of the public can remember that what they see or read online may not present the full facts of the case, people often react emotively to what they see online, and form quick judgments on what had happened, or who was in the right or wrong in that incident,” said Dr Maliki in parliament. 

Responding to questions from Members of Parliament (MPs) about the viral video of some Montfort Secondary School students fighting, Dr Maliki said that schools conduct thorough investigations to understand the facts when an incident is reported, before deciding what actions to take. 

These could include both disciplinary and rehabilitative actions, he added, noting that the school will also assist the police in their investigations if a police report is filed. 

In the video of the Montfort students, which was posted on Facebook on Feb 22, a group of students can be seen approaching a boy from behind, tripping and kicking him. It was shared on Facebook more than 10,000 times before it was taken down or made private.

The Secondary 1 student who was seen being pushed by other students in the video had fought with two classmates earlier, said MOE in its statement on Monday.

A teacher stopped the fight in the classroom, but the fight continued after the two classmates followed the student to the stairway and canteen after dismissal. 

All three students “share some responsibility” for the incident, and all of them will receive “appropriate punishment”, the ministry said at the time.

After the video made its rounds online, a Facebook user named Joleen Wee, who said she was the mother of the boy who was pushed in the video, uploaded a post on Feb 23 about her son’s “traumatic experience”. 

“What the school and MOE has replied or answered has raised concerns about the school’s failure to protect its students,” she wrote. 

“Through this post, I wished to clarify that my son was not just being bullied! He was assaulted!” she wrote, adding that she had made a police report.

MOE and schools would prefer to handle each case sensitively to provide space and privacy for the students involved to learn from their mistakes and grow, said Dr Maliki on Friday. 

But if a case is made public online and the information is “unduly skewed", causing public concern, damaging the reputation of other parties or promoting one side of the story even though the accuser “may not be totally innocent”, MOE may have to publish the facts of the case to provide a balanced view, he added. 

"This is to be fair to our educators and all parties involved," said Dr Maliki. 

“MOE also put out information on the actions taken against all parties who share responsibility for the incident – the initiator who started the fight and others who retaliated or joined in subsequently." 

Bystanders, as well as those who recorded the incident and shared the recordings online, will also be called out, counselled and punished if necessary, he added. 

This will remind them not to do so to avoid further hurting those involved and highlight that by sharing the recordings online, they are endorsing the acts.

"This will also mitigate the impulse to normalise or chase the extremes in the contest to circulate ever more startling videos and content," he added. 

This is a "teaching moment" for the community, Dr Maliki said.

"We cannot form good conclusions from a video snippet," he added.