IPOH: Parents were urged to play more proactive role in curbing gangsterism among school students.
Perak Crime Prevention and Community Policing department officer DSP Ng Bo Huat (community policing) said there is a need for parents to monitor and educate their children and not allow them to be bullied by their peers.
"If there are information on bullies in school, please call our hotline 05-240 1999 or Malaysia Emergency Response Service (MERS) 999. Parents could also bring this issue up in Parent-Teacher Associations where our school relations officers will attend the meeting as well. Give this info to discipline teachers too.
"Hotspot schools will be our focus. We will compare the list given by the Education Ministry to the list prepared by the school relations officers," he said.
He said to increase public awareness on gangsterism, roadshows was also being held state-wide until September 11.
"There will also be talks held for discipline teachers and school relation officers (police) on how to tackle bullying in Perak. We are stepping efforts to empower crime prevention bully and gangsterism," he said today.
Meanwhile, state exco in charge of education, science, environment and green technology Datuk Muhammad Amin Zakaria said more joint-activities and programme would be organised to curb disciplinary problems including school bullies.
In Perak, 30 schools are labelled as hotspots, with seven of them were identified with having both discipline and drugs problems, and the others listed for disciplinary issues.
The 402 schools listed as hotspots nationwide were identified through input from the Students' Discipline System (Sistem Sahsiah Diri Murid or SSDM).
Under the system, schools are required to fill up information on students with disciplinary problem to allow actions to be carried out fairly and according to the standard operating procedure.