I REFER to the report, "Birthday prank gone too far?" (my paper, Nov 14) and the accompanying response from the principal of Anglo-Chinese Junior College.

My first reaction upon reading the report was disgust, regardless of whether the prank was carried out with malicious intent or not.

I do not think it is appropriate, whether it be in a school or army-camp environment, to subject people to such treatment.

I felt that the principal did not handle the incident appropriately, and was naive to have accepted the birthday girl's assurance that she was fine with the prank played on her.

If the birthday girl did indeed hang her head and shout "I really hate all of you!" at her schoolmates, it goes to show that she was not enjoying herself.

She could possibly have been warned by her peers not to say anything negative about the incident to teachers or the principal.

Students should not be carrying out such acts on their peers, and schools should tackle the issue so that similar incidents will not happen in future.

As for my daughter, the furthest her friends went was gently pushing her face into her birthday cake, and not slamming it in.

This was done in good fun. I would hate to think of my school-going daughter experiencing the same ordeal as the girl in the video.

I do not think that what was done to her was carried out in good humour, as the principal said.

Ms Pauline Chan

See also:

>> Video of the ACJC hazing

>> Photo gallery

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