GEORGE TOWN: A parliamentarian has urged the Education Ministry to step up efforts to educate the young about handling stress and learn how to reach out, after the body of a troubled 13-year-old boy was found hanging in his bathroom.
Jelutong MP R.S.N. Rayer (pix) said that the education and various religious authorities have to be aware that the young are now in a “fragile” state and seem less able to handle stress compared to those from previous generations.
Rayer urged the authorities to conduct more classes on how to handle stress and make helpline numbers easily accessible.
He also called for a social media campaign to generate awareness on how to fight stress and to coach families on how to identify danger signs and symptoms.
According to the police, the boy, the youngest of three siblings, had penned a note, citing that he loved his parents but that he could not cope with his school work load.
It was learnt that just a couple of days before the incident, a school teacher had alerted the boy’s parents, informing them that that the victim was running late on submitting his homework.
On learning this, the parents were said to have berated the boy and asked him to improve on his academic performance as well as his house chores.
The body of the boy was found last night, by his father who sensed something amiss when he heard running water but no indication of his son having a bath. He found his son hanging unconscious when he broke down the bathroom door.
The family alerted the paramedics who arrived within 20 minutes and immediately performed CPR procedures. They rushed the victim to the Penang Hospital where the same process was carried out by an attending doctor.
A postmortem revealed strangulation as the cause of death.
Northeast district police head Asst Comm Che Zaimani Che Awang confirmed the case.
