HK secondary school apologises for calling police on its own students taking photos at campus gate on their last day of school
St Paul's Secondary School also opened up the campus for photo-taking opportunities for one afternoon last week
Students snubbed the school's offer to let them take photos on the St Paul's Secondary campus for two hours one afternoon last week.St Paul's Secondary School has apologised for calling police to stop Form Six pupils from taking farewell photos at the campus gate last month in an incident that sparked outrage.
To make up for the incident, the school opened the campus for photo-taking opportunities to the Form Six girls for two hours one afternoon last week. But the students snubbed the open day.
In a statement posted on its website on Monday, the elite girls' school in Happy Valley also promised to evaluate future arrangements.
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“The school would like to extend our apology to all stakeholders who might be troubled and disturbed by the captioned incident,” it said.
“We will also thoroughly evaluate future arrangements for various student activities to ensure that they can be conducted smoothly.” The statement went on to add that the teacher involved deeply apologises for the hasty decision in calling the police.
On February 28, the final school day for Form Six students before they went on study leave for the HKDSE, some girls took photos around and outside their campus as reminders of their time at St Paul’s. But a teacher called police to stop the girls from taking photos at the gate. The school later explained that the teacher called the police “out of concern for the pupils’ safety”.
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At least 13 complaints were lodged with the Education Bureau within one day.
Some parents sent a letter to education minister Kevin Yeung Yun-hung, demanding that the teachers involved be punished. “I feel very shocked and angry about the incident,” the parents’ letter read.
“Teachers are supposed to nurture talents … but now they are repressing students with their authority.”
Edited by Nicole Moraleda