MOGANA Selvi and her husband, Suresh Balakrishna had high hopes for their 11-year-old son to have a bright future, and take their family out of poverty.

However, their dreams, just like the dreams of their son, have been dashed.

Mogana says her son is now considered as a person with disabilities (PwD) by doctors after his school teacher punished him, shattering the boy’s ambition to become a police officer.

On April 30, the Year 5 pupil from a school in Ampang was punished by his teacher along with three other students. They were made to stand under the hot sun, a punishment among others prohibited by the Education Ministry.

The three other boys were let off their punishment early but not Mogana’s son. 

The boy remains unnamed as he is underaged.

According to the mother’s initial police report on this case, she claimed that her son was made to stand under the sun from 10am to 12.50pm, approximately three hours. 

The boy was later rushed to hospital as he suffered heat stroke. 

Doctors at Ampang Hospital, who initially assessed him, revealed that the boy suffered nerve-related damage and was declared to have become PwD. 

Mogana, who is three-months pregnant, was left distraught, having to see her secondborn in a condition that she never imagined. 

Residing in a low-cost apartment, Mogana said her traumatised son wakes up during the wee hours and does weird things.

She said he would sit next to the bathroom, get his head wet and continue to drench it with water as it dries. 

She also said that he would stare out the window, claiming that the teacher who punished him is coming to get him. 

The mother said she would need to calm him before he goes to bed again. 

“This is something I never wished for,” the 35-year-old mother tearfully told The Malaysian Insight in an exclusive interview. 

Mogana, a housewife, said the entire family was devastated by what had happened, adding that the incident would also impact them financially. 

The mother of five said her husband Suresh is just a scrap collector and makes a meagre income just enough to put food on the table. 

Aloof and unhappy

Mogana said her son was passionate about becoming a police officer, adding that he had joined the school’s police cadets to pursue his ambition. 

“He was inspired by the cops’ role in real life and also in television.

“But now that seems unlikely as doctors told my son that he has disabilities. All our hopes are in tatters,” she said. 

“He is no longer cheerful, playful nor happy.

“His siblings are missing the usual him, with my eldest son always asking what has happened to his younger brother and why he is very quiet these days,” Mogana said.

The eldest boy is 13-years old while the three children younger to the affected boy are 10, eight and six years old respectively.

Mogana said her son now needs assistance in doing his daily chores, including showering and eating. 

She said she was fearful of sending her other children to school after what happened to her second child. 

On Wednesday, the family alleged that the authorities are trying to evade the main issue, which is the punishment meted out by the teacher that left their son in his current condition. 

Instead of focusing on how the boy was punished and taking action against the culprit, they said the police were trying to establish if the boy was disabled before the incident. 

Dayalan Sreebalan, the family’s spokesman, said the authorities were focused on the student’s disabilities rather than the crime of the teacher.

“The initial police report made by the mother was on the punishment meted out by the teacher on the student and nothing about the child’s disability status,” he said. 

On May 25, Ampang Jaya police chief Mohd Azam Ismail said that investigations had revealed that the suspect, a male teacher, 37, had punished the boy and three others for “10 minutes”.

He said police had completed investigation into the mother’s allegation and that the investigation paper had been referred to the public prosecutor’s office for further action.

Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek’s special officer Thiyagaraj Sankaranarayanan, in a Facebook post, said that the teacher breached the ministry’s Professional Circular No.7/1995 Procedures on Punishment and Disciplinary Action on Students. 

The circular reminded schools against flying into a rage and jumping to rash conclusions without proper investigation, also saying that torture and public insults should be avoided.

Wanting justice

Dayalan, meanwhile, said Ampang Hospital gave the family a reference letter for their son after he was assessed as PwD by doctors. The parents are in the process of obtaining an OKU card for him.

Dinesh Muthal, the lawyer representing the family, said that the investigation officer (IO) did not handle the case well. Dinesh claimed that the victim’s classmate, a witness in this case, has been exposed to the teacher by the IO, which led to the student being threatened. 

He said this took place in a closed-door meeting between the school’s administration and the parents of the victim. 

Dinesh claimed that this was an element of witness tampering.

When asked, Mogana said she wants justice for her son and that she would never forgive the teacher for what he has done. 

“My son is in this state because of the teacher.

“I’ll never be able to forgive the teacher because of that,” she said. – June 7, 2024.