As parents, we only want our children to be protected, happy, enjoy life and be a good human being. And as a parent, it hurts me to see a child being tortured, abused and eventually dying because that is something we wouldn’t want to happen, ever.

Mohamad Thaqif Amin Mohd Gadaffi, the 11-year-old student who was beaten and abused at his religious boarding school, died of his injuries. But not before both legs were amputated, put into an induced coma and almost had to have his arm amputated as well.

It is alleged that Thaqif was beaten with a rubber hose repeatedly. His beatings caused him to get a serious bacterial infection. As for now, his death has been classified as murder and an assistant warden at the school has been detained for investigations.

Thaqif’s mother, Felda Wani Ahmad, had removed him from the school after he complained that he was receiving regular beatings. He had only been at the school for two months and according to his father, Mohd Gaddafi Mat Karim, it was his own decision to attend a madrassah.

I went to a fully residential boarding school (Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Ipoh) and there never were beatings that were dished out by the teachers or wardens. In fact, they actually went out of their way to educate us and make our lives away from our families better. This was about 25 years ago.

I remember my hostel warden, Cikgu Ahmad Zainuddin Ahmad Kamal (affectionately known to us as Zak Kapcai), being one of the particular nice ones who was always spending time with us students at the dormitories on weekdays and weekends.

One time, I had lost my ATM card, couldn’t buy a flight ticket to get home for the holidays and was stranded at the Ipoh airport. Zak Kapcai rode his trusty ‘kapcai’ motorcycle to the airport and lent me money so I could go home.

When I first stepped foot into the hostel, I found it a little hard to adjust to boarding school life. Cikgu P Manoharan, my biology teacher, would take me out for supper and tell me that if I ever needed someone to talk to, or if I ever had any problems and needed advice, he would be there for me.

Although I didn’t go to a religious school or madrassah, that is beside the point. I highly doubt that this has anything to do with religious education. It is just plain irresponsibility and inhumane treatment.

So when news of what the late young Thaqif went through at his boarding school surfaced, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. The school has a big and heavy responsibility...