NJC coach who asked student to "go into my heart" and meet in his "comfortable room" terminated

David Sun
The New Paper
Aug 02, 2018

A relief physical education teacher at National Junior College (NJC) has been terminated for inappropriate behaviour.

The coach, a student at Nanyang Technological University, admitted to sending inappropriate messages to female students from April to June, including asking one to meet him in his hostel room.

Several messages sent to the 17-year-old girl on social media platform Instagram were shared with The New Paper.

In the messages, he asked her to "go into my heart" and meet him in his "comfortable room" to play some games.

TNP understands that the messages made her uncomfortable, but she still met him in the single-bed hostel room with friends.

In other messages, he called her an angel and asked her out to study together.

TNP understands the coach, who is in his late 20s, also sent similar messages to other female students in the JC.

The girl's boyfriend, 20, told TNP that the coach had joined NJC earlier this year.

"When I asked him if he thought what he did was professional, he told me to just trust my girlfriend more," said the full-time national serviceman.

He said when he and the girl complained to the vice-principal, "he just brushed it off".

The school later closed the case without taking action against the teacher, he added, and the girl was told to "trust the teacher's professionalism".

However, NJC refuted his version, saying it was still investigating at the time.

Its spokesman said: "Our vice-principal was alerted by the student's parent about the inappropriate message sent in one encounter.

"An immediate investigation was carried out. The relief teacher had admitted and apologised for his inappropriate actions. The relief teacher is no longer with the school."

When contacted, a Ministry of Education (MOE) spokesman said it works closely with schools on the well-being of students and will continue to do so.

She added: "MOE takes a very serious view of every case where staff fall short of expected standards, even for relief teachers.

"For cases where relief teachers fail to comply with our standards of conduct and discipline, the schools will terminate their services."

Read the rest of the story on The New Paper.