KUALA LUMPUR: Teachers were called to lend moral support to their peer who will be brought to court on Tuesday after being accused of assaulting a student in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan.
Identified only as “Cikgu Azizan”, the teacher was said to have slapped a student whom he claimed had sniffed glue, involved in bullying cases and skipped school.
National Union of The Teaching Profession (NUTP) in a statement on Friday has expressed support for Azizan and urged members to show support to Azizan.
“NUTP will provide legal service to defend this teacher. At the same time, NUTP would like to call on all teachers in Malaysia to give moral support by coming to the court on Dec 19, 8.30am at the Seremban magistrate court,” the statement read, which was signed by NUTP secretary-general, Henry Tan Huat Hock.
On Oct 31, Azizan attended the first hearing of his court case where he was charged under Section 323 of the Penal Code which deals with punishment for voluntarily causing hurt.
If found guilty, Azizan will be facing one year imprisonment or RM2,000 fine or both.
According to website pendidik2u.my, after the first hearing, the judge presiding the case set the bail of RM500 for Azizan.
Reportedly according to the website, when Azizan was arrested, he was kept in a lock up together with other convicts involved in drugs. There were about 13 convicts at the time and his hand was handcuffed with another convict.
“He was charged because he took disciplinary action against the student. For your information, he did that because the student were sniffing glue on school grounds and influenced three other students to do the same.
“The student was also involved in bullying cases where he had hit other students and he skipped school by climbing the school fence,” the website said in an article posted yesterday.
Azizan is also garnering more support on social media, where more netizens are calling for others to do an online voting in showing support for him at the pendidik2u.my website.
#PrayForCikguAzizan is making its round on social media and netizens continue to pour support for him, while pleading to other teachers in the country to not give up when facing difficult situations with students.
“Even if you can’t attend the court proceeding, use the media platform as much as you can to show support for Cikgu Azizan,” the article added.