Principal vows closer monitoring of pupils to tackle problems

Social workers and teachers at Chiu Yang Por Yen Primary School will step up monitoring of children following the death of two of the school's pupils, in Primary Three and Six, in Sunday's Tin Shui Wai tragedy.

School principal Lam Pik-chu said yesterday social workers and teachers would encourage students to express themselves more.

'Children might not consider some behaviour of their parents who are mental patients as abnormal or strange,' she said. 'They might be too young to judge. We will work harder to closely monitor these students even if they show no symptom of feeling disturbed by their parents' behaviour or things at home.'

Ms Lam said Chan Po-yee, 12, and Chan Tung-man, nine, had shown no signs of distress. 'Our social worker closely monitored their situation. They did not have problems with their study and were well-behaved. It did not seem they were troubled at all. There was no sign a family tragedy was going to happen. But we will learn the lesson and step up efforts to help children.'

Ms Lam said the school social worker always had close contact with the medical social workers on their parents' cases. 'A letter from the Social Welfare Department was sent to us to inform us that the children's father had to be admitted to a hospital. We were also informed that the mother had mental illness,' she said.

Counselling was offered to students and teachers by church and Education Bureau social workers.