KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 ― A Sabah state assemblyman has demanded that the Education Ministry clarify if students are prohibited from sporting necklaces with cross or crucifix pendants in school after a student in Selangor reportedly had his confiscated.

Borneo Post Online reported Tamparuli assemblyman Datuk Wilfred Bumburing as saying that if there were such rulings, they should be nullified as it was tantamount to religious discrimination against Christians and a violation of the constitutional right to practise one’s religion freely.

“If there is such directive, does the government realise that it is a gross violation of the constitution?” Bumburing was quoted saying.

“If on the other hand, there is no such directive then the people want to know what action will the government take on the disciplinary teacher,” the opposition state lawmaker added.

Bumburing said the secondary school student’s father, a Sabahan called Jolis Beid, had told him that his son was “traumatised” by the confiscation as he had been wearing the Christian religious symbol around his neck for the last two years.

News portal Malaysiakini reported yesterday that a necklace with a cross pendant was seized from the student at SMK Taman Sri Muda in Shah Alam, Selangor, last week, which prompted Beid to lodge a police report.

Beid, however, withdrew the police report lodged last Thursday after the school principal apologised to him and his son was allowed to wear the necklace again.

Sabah paper Daily Express reported last December that a school in Keningau, Sabah, allegedly prohibited Christian students from wearing the crucifix — the image of Jesus Christ on a cross — but the Sabah Education Department later denied the ban and said students who want to sport religious symbols must first ask permission from the school.