Tutor fined $2,000 for beating girl with wooden ruler

A tutor who beat a nine-year-old girl with a wooden ruler for not doing her homework was fined $2,000 yesterday.

Tsoi Shuk-kan, 38, spanked the girl's hand 200 times on one day and 100 times on another. When she tried to hide or cry, Tsoi beat her arms, thighs and cheek, the victim said, hitting her so hard that the 46cm ruler snapped in half and left the youngster with bruises.

Tsoi faced a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of $50,000 after pleading not guilty to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

More than a dozen mothers and their children, who had sat through the trial in support of the tutor, broke out in cheers and tears when Eastern Magistrate Winston Leung Wing-chung passed sentence.

Tsoi said the girl's mother was aware she had been administering corporal punishment and had encouraged her because she could not discipline her daughter.

The magistrate said he felt it 'uneasy and upsetting' to pass sentence on 'a good, responsible and respectable teacher' whose duties were 'difficult and unflattering'.

'This is a task that many parents don't know how to do or are unwilling to do ... they then rely on tutors to teach and discipline them on their behalf. But one cannot expect to teach a good student with spanking ... that is simply unacceptable in the modern world.'