Children bullied, say parents critical of school's operations

Students whose parents have been questioning the operations of a direct subsidy school singled out for criticism by the Director of Audit have been subjected to bullying and ridicule, the parents and students say.

One has been suffering from nightmares after being told he should leave the school, they say.

The accusations were levelled at HKMA David Li Kwok Po College by parents including Leticia Lau Lee See-yin, the only parent representative on the school management committee. She said her son, Nicholas, 16, and his friends had been harassed since she began pressing the school - which has raised its Form One fees from HK$960 to HK$2,250 in three years - for its financial and management details two years ago.

Another parent and former member of the parent-teacher association, Lau Shiu-on, said his son Ron, 16, a friend of Nicholas, had also been picked on. The Mong Kok school is one of the 72 direct subsidy schools criticised by the Audit Commission for poor financial practices.

Letitia Lau said Nicholas had been kept in a room at the school for eight hours without his parents' knowledge after being accused of threatening other students, which he denied. She also said school principal Nicholas Puiu told her son, who did well in his studies, to consider leaving the school. He had been suffering from nightmares and had begun screaming in the middle of the night.

Leticia Lau said the school had limited transparency in its election. When she was elected as a school manager this year, it refused to register her with the Education Bureau, with no reason given, and asked her to run in the election again.