Hong Kong teacher and librarian killed in campus fall ‘did a demanding and misunderstood job’

A teacher who fell to her death on campus last week had been doing a demanding job which few colleagues understand, a campaigner for the city’s school librarians has said.

The deceased also worked as a librarian, a job which leaves staff open to being overloaded with work, Susana Lau Po-shan said.

Chinese-language and library studies teacher Lam Lai-tong, 48, died last Wednesday at the TWGHs Leo Tung-hai Lee Primary School in Tin Shui Wai, after falling from a six-storey campus building. Family members told reporters she had been under a great deal of stress at the school, where she had worked for more than two decades.

Senior officials at the school’s sponsoring body, Tung Wah Group Hospitals, said on Sunday they would set up an independent panel to look into Lam’s death, and the principal Law Yuen-yee “needed some rest”.

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On Monday Lau, convenor of the Hong Kong School Librarian Concern Group and a primary school librarian of 20 years, told a radio programme: “The greatest feature of the job as a school librarian – other than it being very demanding – is that no one, from your principal and programme leader to your ordinary colleagues, really understands what you are doing.

“This is a job of conscience … You are the only person who knows how bitter your life can be.”

Specialised in managing the library while obliged to help with teaching, librarians are vulnerable to overwork, according to Lau.

“The problem is, a librarian can be a substitute teacher; a random teacher can’t be a librarian. That is why we often have to work overtime after class, cancel our annual leave and return to the library during summer holidays,” she said.

She said a librarian is the only member of school staff specialised in sourcing, procuring, wrapping and sorting new books for students.

“It takes more than a dozen steps to bring the books to the students,” Lau said, adding that hosting reading classes and activities also fell under a librarian’s remit.

What can be worse under the current school-based management mechanism is that teachers’ complaints to the Education Bureau can be ignored or returned to the school’s management, Fung Wai-wah, president of the Professional Teachers’ Union, told the same radio programme. The mechanism vests a lot of power in principals, as opposed to outside administrators.

“Checks and balances on principals are often insufficient, which can lead to arbitration and abuse of power,” Fung said.

He said the bureau’s role as a supervisor and regulator had been “very weak”.

Fung urged the Education Bureau to “pick up its responsibility”.

“It’s not about taking the power back,” Fung said. “The bureau has the responsibility because it has been subsidising the schools. The bureau also has to review the school-based management mechanism.”

Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, operator of the TWGHs Leo Tung-hai Lee Primary School, said on Sunday it received two complaints against the principal, last year and in 2015, stressing the complaints were followed up.

If you, or someone you know, are having suicidal thoughts, help is available. For Hong Kong, dial +852 2896 0000 for The Samaritans or +852 2382 0000 for Suicide Prevention Services. In the United States, call The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on +1 800 273 8255.