SPEAKING from a 'convict's cell', Catherine Hon Sze-man vowed she would never again listen to people who tried to trick her into crime in order to make easy money. Her 'crime' was agreeing to carry drugs.
Catherine, 14, was playing a game. The 'cell' was a circle drawn in the middle of the playground of St Louis School, and her jail sentence lasted five minutes.
Catherine, a Form Four student of St Paul's Secondary School, was one of some 300 Form One to Six students taking part in a social game designed to imitate real-life situations.
The game was a fund-raiser as well as an exercise in leadership training and communication in preparation for a two-day Joint School Leadership Training Camp, to be held in July at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The 'Soci-Game' recreated a range of real-life situations typical of Hong Kong society. They included a school, a factory, a commercial centre, a designer company, a casino, a chapel, a pier, a construction site and a fitness centre.
By performing various tasks at these social venues, participants collected credits under the categories of 'money', 'energy' and 'achievement', explained camp chairman Loretta Yip Wun of St Paul's Secondary School.