Ex-pupil of Caritas Pelletier School appeals to community to embrace positive influence of schools for youngsters with emotional and behavioural problems
PEACE.CHIU@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Monday, 09 May, 2016, 8:04pm
Ajai Shum Tsz-yan said youngsters with emotional or behavioural problems can make a positive contribution to their communities. Photo: David Wong
A graduate of a school for youngsters with emotional and behavioural problems has appealed to Hongkongers to embrace the positive influence such schools can have on the surrounding community.
The comments by Ajai Shum Tsz-yan, 22, come after the principal of a secondary school in Tuen Mun submitted to the Education Bureau late last month notice of opposition to the relocation of one such primary school to a nearby site.
The principal labelled the pupils “drug users” and “gangsters”, and urged the bureau to halt the plan and find another site in the district for the school.
Shum, a graduate of Caritas Pelletier School, one of seven schools in Hong Kong catering to a total of about 1,000 Primary Two to Form Six students with emotional or behavioural problems, disagreed with the principal’s remarks, saying pupils like her would not damage their communities.
“We are not out to kill or commit arson. Instead we are here to help old folks and those in need. We have hands and legs, and have received help, so we want to give back to the community,” she said.
Shum, who underwent six years of secondary education at the school, said she and her schoolmates had helped clean a home for the elderly and staged performances there.
Shum’s parents divorced at a young age, and she began displaying signs of delinquent behaviour after her mother died when she was just 10. The Social Welfare Department then suggested she enrol at the school, where she spent the first three years living in a dormitory.
“I stole from my family and was once arrested by the police at the scene of a fight. My grandmother gave up custody of me and my aunt did not know what to do with me, so she approached the department,” Shum said.
Margaret Yiu Shun-ho, superintendent of Caritas Pelletier Hall, which provides residential care services for pupils from the school, said these youngsters were not “bad” but rather had a weak support network, and the public should afford them more opportunities.
Today, Shum is a chef at a Western-style restaurant, and urges the community to see the best in youngsters with problems such as those she experienced.
She said her school had imposed strict routines, including restrictions on the amount of time she was allowed out, which had helped her get back on the right track.
“I’m trying very hard to change myself, so I hope people can accept me, and not label me a bad person,” she said. “People change – you are not always like you were in the past.”
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1942917/graduate-special-needs-school-rejects-drug-users
