Hong Kong teacher charged for allegedly making false allegations of child abuse at special needs school
- Tong Yat-man, 48, allegedly wrote anonymous letters accusing her superiors and colleagues of mistreating students at Hong Chi Pinehill No 2 School
- The allegations were reported in the media at the time and prompted a pledge from the education chief to handle the matter seriously
Hong Kong police have charged a teacher over allegedly writing anonymous letters that falsely accused her superiors and colleagues of abusing children at a special needs school, sparking an investigation and prompting the education chief to respond.
Tong Yat-man, 48, appeared in Fanling Court on Wednesday afternoon charged with accessing a computer with dishonest intent and wasting officers’ time.
Earlier in the day, the force said it had arrested the woman, who worked as a music and Chinese-language teacher at the Hong Chi Pinehill No 2 School in Tai Po, which caters to students with mental disabilities.
The non-profit organisation that manages the school, the Hong Chi Association, said it welcomed the results of the police investigation, which allowed it to maintain its reputation for serving residents with intellectual disabilities.
According to Chief Inspector Mo Siu-hei of the New Territories North regional crime unit, a parent alerted the force on August 24, claiming to have received an anonymous letter accusing teachers and staff of abusing students at the school. Officers launched an investigation, checking school records and examining 19,000 hours of closed-circuit television footage, he said.
But the force found most of the allegations were exaggerated or untrue, and nothing illegal had been discovered at the school, Mo said.
“We did not rule out that someone was dissatisfied with his or her superiors and colleagues over work arrangements and then made anonymous letters to accuse them of abusing children,” he said.
The teacher, who was arrested on Monday, was suspected of producing and sending anonymous letters, photos and videos to various departments, the group operating the institution and parents between August and October, falsely claiming students had been mistreated, the force said.
Officers found computers and other related materials allegedly used to create the letters in the woman’s office and home, Mo said. They also suspected the woman stole information about the students and the school’s computer system from her employer, and sent it to the media, he added.
In court, prosecutors applied for a three-month adjournment for further police investigation.
Acting Principal Magistrate Colin Wong Sze-cheung released Tong on HK$2,000 (US$254) bail, on condition that she remain in Hong Kong, surrender all travel documents, report to police once a week and avoid contact with prosecution witnesses.
Tong will return to the same court on February 1 next year.
The Hong Chi Association on Wednesday said the teacher had been suspended and it thanked police and the Education Bureau for following up on the case.
“We are pleased with the results of the police investigation, so that the reputation we have built bit by bit can be maintained,” the group said, adding it hoped campus life would return to normal.
Both the force and bureau confirmed in October they had received reports and complaints of suspected mistreatment of students at the school. Police said they received a report from a 44-year-old woman on August 24 alleging her son and three other students, aged 15 to 22, had been mistreated.
Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin pledged last month to handle the accusations seriously, after the incident came to light on October 2 in a report by a Chinese-language paper.
The media outlet published unverified photos, reportedly provided by parents, that showed a student struggling to remove a jacket thrown over his or her head. Another picture showed someone placing a cloth on a pupil’s face. The article cited a guardian as saying that a child had suffered bruises from wrist wraps.
But the association said a day later that two parents had denied the suspected abuse of their children in media reports.
The city has been shocked by a string of child abuse scandals recently. Three employees of the 144-year-old charitable organisation Po Leung Kuk were on Wednesday charged with one to five counts of assault for allegedly mistreating six toddlers at the charity’s residential centre. The trio, aged 25 to 33, were each granted HK$10,000 bail pending their next court appearance in March next year.
An abuse scandal involving the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children emerged last December, and since then, 34 staff members have been arrested over allegations of mistreating 40 toddlers at the group’s residential home.
In light of recent cases, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu earlier pledged to speed up work on a bill that would make it mandatory for childcare professionals to report suspected abuse of a minor.
Mo reiterated police’s zero-tolerance against child abuse.
“Child protection is an issue that we police and the public are very concerned about … We are highly concerned about every child abuse case,” he said, urging residents to report cases.
But the force would not tolerate misuse of the reporting system for personal gain, Mo said.
“Creating and publishing anonymous letters made parents and the public panic and feel helpless, and led residents to lose confidence in the school and our entire child protection mechanism,” he said.
