A tuition teacher has filed a complaint with the Education Ministry that cases of racism, abuse and discrimination are allegedly taking place at a co-ed primary school in Kuala Lumpur.

Greg Lopez, a researcher, who teaches tuition on a part-time basis, filed the complaint via email against SRK Selayang Baru Satu after four of his students had confided in him.

According to him, his students, all of whom are Indian Malaysians, and their parents complained about 'rampant racism' in the school.

They claimed that Indian Malaysian students were consistently subjected to 'foul and racist' insults.

"Malay prefects punish students of Indian descent indiscriminately. The school authorities condone these behaviour by taking no action when complaints are made," said Lopez, 33, when contacted.

'Terror teachers'

In his range of complaints, Lopez highlighted a case of a teacher who allegedly slapped a student and another who was a convicted student abuser.

"The school's discipline teacher has been jailed for choking a student. The student lost his voice for three days. After the parents made a police report, the teacher was only jailed for three days with no subsequent action taken," he said.

Lopez, who forwarded a copy of his complaint to malaysiakini , said the teacher also constantly kicked students.

"If a student is mischievous or naughty, the appropriate action is to call the parents and let them know of the child's behaviour," he said, calling for the teacher to be dismissed.

One of Lopez's students also claimed to have seen a male teacher lift the skirt of a standard five pupil during a school camp.

This teacher, who has since been transferred, had allegedly threatened students with canning if they complained about his actions.

Another female teacher was accused of slapping a student for not 'bringing her book'.

'Rude students'

Contacted later, the school's assistant principal Fatimah Nordin denied the allegations of racism and discrimination.

"You must understand that most of the Indians in the school come from squatter areas, where rough and foul language is used and they are undisciplined and rude even with teachers," she said when contacted.

She stressed that all students are treated equally and pointed out that the complaints could have been made by 'coarse' parents, who themselves had verbally abused teachers on many occasions.

On the accusations against the discipline teacher, Fatimah said she could not comment as the former was in charge of the afternoon session.

As to the female teacher accused of slapping a student, the assistant principal claimed she has not received a report on this, adding that the said teacher "was dedicated and loved by the students".

She also dismissed receiving any reports pertaining to the accusation of a teacher lifting a student's skirt.

Food woes

Meanwhile, Lopez also complained about two incidents of food poisoning in the school canteen.

"A child after eating nasi lemak vomited and became seriously ill while on the second occasion about a month ago a brush wire (found in the food) choked a student.

"The student was hospitalised. Doctors had to pump the wire out and he vomited blood for the next few days," he said.

However, Fatimah said the school's canteen was sparkling clean and had even been given an 'excellence' award by the state education department

Lopez also said parents were not allowed to pack food for their children because the school disallowed this on the grounds that they may bring non-halal or junk food.

He claimed that junk food was being sold in the school but the assistant principal clarified that it was being sold outside the premises in order to avoid students littering in the compound.

Recently, the Kuala Lumpur education department said non-halal food was only disallowed from school canteens and not the entire school.

Lopez called for immediate action by the authorities regarding his complaint.

"This school is obviously nothing more than a ghetto school. I expect the ministry to take immediate action and improve the overall condition of the school," he said.