The mother of a 17-year-old boy who died earlier this year has been demonstrating outside a Hong Kong secondary school demanding “justice” from the teachers and staff who she says drove her son to commit suicide.
The woman, surnamed Leung, was recently seen standing outside a Sheung Shui secondary school with a sign, on which she said her son became suicidal because the school’s director of discipline sent him home early and gave him a warning for missing classes.
Speaking to Apple Daily, Leung said, “My son was very scared; he wouldn’t stop saying, ‘I’ll change’ [when the director called him], and begging for mercy.” After the phone conversation ended, the boy cried and said he was going out for a walk, but was found dead later that night.
After the incident, Leung says she has repeatedly attempted to contact the school and speak to the discipline director, but was told by the principal that the staff member was “off sick”. When a meeting date was finally set for the end of May, the director reportedly failed to show up.
“I just want to know what they said to my son,” Leung told reporters yesterday. “I want justice for my son.”
When contacted by Apple Daily, the school said it could not comment as the death of Leung’s son was being investigated by the Coroner’s Court.
A spate of student suicides in recent years has led to intense criticism of Hong Kong’s high pressure education system. A special LegCo panel set up to investigate the issue last year advised that schools emphasize the importance of “non-academic achievements” to alleviate the pressure on local students.
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