This is kinda absurd, the school loves costume play too much they just had to single out those who didn’t come in costumes. Honestly, I don’t see really see much benefit in wearing traditional costumes. I mean it would look great and all but it just not that necessary.
School says students not punished for not turning up in costumes
Ethnic garb was the requirement for this year’s Racial Harmony Day celebrations at Jurong West Secondary. To all good intent, this was meant to create a better atmosphere and make it a grander occasion, according to the school.
But what happens when pupils turn up without an ethnic outfit? Some 30 to 40 of them, who did not have costumes, were taken out of the activities and made to stand outside the school office for one-and-a-half hours, said a parent who called the MediaCorp Hotline, after her son was one of those who missed the finale.
“We had trouble borrowing costumes, and I didn’t want to waste money buying something that he would only wear once a year,” said Madam Ng, who declined to give her full name. “Why should they be punished for that?”
Avoiding punishment was on the minds of some other pupils.
“Half my class didn’t even turn up because they couldn’t find costumes,” said a Secondary 3 student who declined to be named. “We were told we had to come in costumes or we might be punished.”
But school principal Oliver Jeeva Balasingam told TODAY that Jurong West Secondary did not punish any pupils for not wearing costumes. “That is not true,” he said. “Students who did not wear the costumes were taken aside and briefed by some teachers and then told to do a feedback form about racial harmony. I don’t see that as a punishment at all. And they took part in other activities in the morning.”
He explained that students who could not get costumes because of financial difficulties could have approached the school for help. “We could have helped them borrow costumes,” he said. “That was made known to the students when we notified them about the costumes.”
Source: Yahoo! News
I remember that my secondary school made it optional to wear these costumes during racial harmony day. Few turned up in costumes of course but everyone turned up and enjoyed themselves at least.
[Edit: Just thought it would be funny to tag this post 'cosplay']
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by Estee (Jul 22, 2007 at 2 AM)