‘The children understand what is happening’: Lantau special school head appeals for respect after pupils labelled ‘drug users’ and ‘gangsters’
Controversial plan to move special-needs school is passed despite opposition from local principal who branded pupils ‘drug users and gangsters’
A plan to relocate a school for boys with emotional and behavioural problems from South Lantau to Tuen Mun has been passed by the Legislative Council’s panel on education, after the city’s education minister appealed for support from the public.
The move comes after the principal of Yan Oi Tong Chan Wong Suk Fong Memorial Secondary School, a mainstream school in Tuen Mun, last month submitted to the Education Bureau his opposition to the special-needs school’s relocation, calling on the bureau to “seriously and justly evaluate” the impact of this type of school on residents.
The principal came under fire for only citing in the letter the worst descriptions in the bureau’s identification guidelines of students with emotional and behavioural issues, such as associating these pupils with drug users and gangsters.
But yesterday the relocation approval included a show of support from Michael Tien Puk-sun, deputy chairman of the New People’s Party, and Wong Kwok-hing, a member of the Federation of Trade Unions.
Tien said his party fully supported the proposal, adding he “saw no reason not to”, after Kevin Yeung Yun-hung, undersecretary for education, pointed out that residents living near the other six such schools in the city had not been affected by their presence.
Wong said the public should support and care for the students.
Earlier in the day, Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim said he hoped society would support Legco passing the plan.
He pointed out that the schools, known as schools for social development, had an important contribution to make to society, providing an opportunity for those facing learning and development difficulties to establish a normal life.
Ng said the bureau had visited schools in Tuen Mun in February to gather their views, and had consulted Tuen Mun District Council’s Social Services Committee and the Tai Hing and Shan King Area Committee in March. Both did not object to the plan.
On whether the guidelines by the bureau were outdated, Ng said the document was intended as a practical tool for educators to refer students with emotional and behavioural problems to schools for social development. As such, it had to include a range of examples for schools to refer to.
Ng also said the bureau often updated related documents.
Yan Oi Tong school apologised on Sunday for selectively using descriptions of students with special needs from Education Bureau guidelines. But it did not retract its opposition to the relocation plan.
Responding to the apology during a radio interview yesterday, Tung Wan Mok Law Shui Wah School principal Paul Cheuk Tak-kan said: “I believe the incident arose from the community’s lack of an in-depth understanding of services offered by special-needs schools.
“We have always said this was a misunderstanding. There is no opposition or ill feeling ... There is no need to apologise ... As long as everyone respects each other, that’s enough.”
Cheuk said his pupils – 60 students aged seven to 14 – were reacting positively despite the derogatory comments made earlier by Yan Oi Tong’s principal.
“I have talked to my students. The children understand what is happening, but this is a good educational opportunity,” Cheuk said.
But Margaret Yiu Shun-ho, superintendent of Caritas Pelletier Hall, which provides residential care services for pupils from one school of social development, said her colleagues had told her their students were “unhappy” and “uncomfortable” with the portrayal of them by the principal.
She also called for the guidelines to be updated as many of the problems they described were those faced by students in the 1970s and 80s but did not commonly exist in the 21st century.
