MIRI, April 1 — The two SMK Lutong teachers accused of trying to convert a 13-year-old schoolgirl to Islam here last month have been transferred out of Sarawak, Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) secretary general Datuk Sebastian Ting disclosed today.
Ting said he was informed by an official from the Education Ministry when he inquired about the matter.
“The ministry did the right thing by transferring them out of the state, not let them teach in another school in the state,” Ting said, adding that he considered the issue concerning the attempted conversion of the schoolgirl, Sabrina Ngumbang, as closed.
He said the state Education Department is also in the process of transferring the girl, a Form One student, to another school in Miri Division.
“It is better that she be transferred to another school because she is still traumatised by what has happened,” he said, adding that it is also to help her to focus on her studies.
“The attempted conversion should never have happened in the first place as it involves minors where parents’ consent is a must,” he said, adding that junior secondary school students, being under 18-years-old, are legally considered as minors.
Ting, who is also the Barisan Nasional’s Miri Parliamentary Liaison Committee chairman, said he is concerned with the plight of the girl, who comes from a poor family.
On March 25, Sabrina, who is Methodist Christian, accompanied by her parents and Miri federal lawmaker Dr Michael Teo, lodged a report with the Miri police, accusing a teacher of arranging the alleged conversion without her parents’ consent.
Both teachers are believed to be from peninsular Malaysia.
