Teachers were simply following guidelines in reacting to a mentally disturbed Form Four student before he jumped to his death, the school's headmaster said yesterday, rejecting criticism of his staff.
Lau Chong-yuen, the head of Tung Chung Catholic School, was testifying at an inquest into the death of Wong Ling-fung, 17, who killed himself in May last year at the school.
Wong was banned from classes a few weeks before his death, and Lau said it was an appropriate treatment in reaction to Wong's 'insulting' comments about a teacher. 'We wanted to protect him. I received reports that some students wanted to teach him a lesson,' Lau said.
Wong was given a demerit and confined for several days to a room next to the school's general office after he publicly criticised his Chinese language teacher.
'The demerit was not used to punish him,' Lau said. 'Our objectives were to support him and to give him counselling.' All measures were conducted in accordance with the government guideline on dealing with mentally disturbed students, Lau said.
But solicitor Albert Ho Chun-yan, who represents Wong's family, doubted whether enough efforts were made to minimise the effect of the disciplinary actions.