SK Pos Tohoi tightens security as students stay away

GUA MUSANG, Oct 12 — It took a tragedy for SK Pos Tohoi, a primary school with a total enrolment of 130, to finally beef up security. 

Workers were seen replacing the perimeter fence of the school yesterday but its hostel was virtually deserted. 

The parents of 103 pupils from Kampung Simpul, Kampung Gawen and Kampung Penad, some 50km away, decided not to send their children to school, fearing another tragedy. 

A Malay Mail check yesterday found only 20 pupils at school. Ten of them live in Pos Tohoi near the school and are not staying in the hostel. 

A parent, who declined to be identified, said he feared for the safety of his nine-year-old son.

“The tragedy has frightened us. We would rather keep our children with us as we do not want something like this to happen again,” he said. 

Another parent, who only wanted to be known as Teh, said the safety of her child was her priority. 

“I can’t imagine the pain the parents of the missing pupils are going through. I’m afraid something like that can recur.” 

A warden at the hostel, who did not want to be named, said the school’s future could be in doubt if the parents did not get over their fears. 

“They claim they have lost faith in the teachers and the security. They are not sure if they want to send their children back,” he said.

“Some have said they will only decide once justice for the seven children has been served.”

Another individual at the school said the seven were not naughty children, and blamed negligence for the tragedy.

“Children are children. It’s the boarding school’s responsibility to watch them and they should not place the blame on someone else,” the individual said.

Efforts to speak to the headmaster were futile but the senior assistant defended the teachers, who had been accused of instilling fear in the pupils.

“They were just warning and looking out for the children, just like their parents would have done,” he said.

Yesterday, workers were seen mending a hole in the fence where the missing children were believed to have crawled out.

Bernama reported Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was saddened that four of the children had been found dead. 

Ahmad Zahid, who is in Washington, said he had met the parents of the children earlier and directed search operations to be extended to a wider area involving the Senoi Praaq.

He said the Education Department had been ordered to relocate the student hostels to the school building while the existing hostels would be turned into teachers’ quarters. This was to avoid the students from feeling alienated.