KUCHING: Relatives of an eight-year-old girl lodged a police report on Tuesday night alleging that a religious teacher at her school had ‘intended’ to harm her.
Speaking to reporters, the child’s aunt said the incident occurred at her niece’s school in Semariang around 5pm following the end of religious classes.
“My niece was alone waiting for her mother when her teacher, in his 20’s, led her to a room on the pretext of showing her how to perform a pre-prayer cleansing ritual,” she said.
She added the teacher kept trying to coax her niece into the unlit room, but she refused and began to cry before running away and later informing her mother of the incident.
“I believe the teacher might be up to no good and had ill-intentions towards her as there was no reason for him to try to get her into the room alone with him.
“He could have wanted to demonstrate the cleansing ritual, but why did he want to show it to her alone and not during the class with the rest of the pupils?” she queried.
She also said she tried to call the religious teacher, who is attached to the school as a part-timer, but could not get through to his mobile phone.
The aunt also claimed that a few teachers from the school, led by the disciplinary teacher, came to her house that evening to ‘discuss’ the matter.
However, her husband, who is with the state Education Department, rejected the mediation attempt and urged her to lodge a police report instead.
“My family felt that it was in the best interest of our niece, who is being raised by a single mother, to report the matter to the police as a pre-emptive measure to protect her and other female pupils at the school from any ill-intent by the teacher,” she added.