去信為「冷血」少女平反

今晚得知說不肯捐錢的屯門中學少女被學校記大過。藍天蔚實在覺得這樣有點過份，因為那只是一個十二、三歲的小朋友。小朋友的思想未成熟，所以才需要由學校教育，學校因為她不成熟而懲罰她是比這孩子更不成熟，也不利小朋友日後的成長。

我剛剛set up了一個petition的網頁http://www.petitiononline.com/girltyt/petition.html (如看見亂碼，請選簡體(GB CODE)，文字應該會變回正常)，我認為學校不應該以學生的道德和言論來懲罰學生，你不一定要同意女孩子的言論，只要你認同女孩子有表達自己意見的自由，也希望你簽名支持，也希望你們能在你們的blog內幫忙宣傳。香港再如此下去，在每一個環節都收緊言論自由，令孩子自小不敢表達意見，香港的言論自由哀哉了。

我也寫了一電郵予保良局董玉娣中學的校長(希望沒有跌落垃圾桶)：

Dear Mr. Cheung,

I am a blogger. I just read newspaper and knew that your school had punished the little girl who wrote in her blog that she didn't donate for the earthquake in China and whatever the contents of the blog.

I knew that your school has been a bright one in Tuen Mun - one of the six English Schools there.

However, I strongly doubt the reason for your school to exert such a heavy punishment JUST for speech. I don't know whether you've watched the Hong Kong Connect (the Cantonese version) of the RTHK last Sunday. Experts from the Mainland expressed views that the earthquake itself might be artificially stimulated by the huge dams in that areas.

Well, we expected that earthquakes are natural disasters but some experts provided us different views. I believe that you and your colleagues support freedom of speech, since it is important for citizens in Hong Kong to be exposed to different views so as to have a clear pictures on every issue. Giving a little girl such a heavy punishment is certainly not an encouragement measure for her and all your students to express their true views and feelings in the future. I think that this is contradictory to the aim of your school. My experience was that, without asking stupid questions, clever answers will not be available. Allowing youngsters to ask and explore, and guide them to the right way is your responsibility.

If, such a little girl has a very mature views on everything, I believe she don't need to enter your school since your school can provide nothing to her. She needs your education since she's not mature. It is not reasonable for your school to punish her just because she's not mature.

Furthermore, I believe that for such a little girl, she may not have very strong views on everything and she is certainly still strongly affected by her family. I still remember that when I was eight, I spoke foul language in class since my parents speak foul language all the time!

In fact, her speech didn't breach any law. What is the reason for your school to put such a heavy punishment on her? I believe that your school can try different ways to "punish" her like asking her to do volunteer works for a specified number of hours. She has to go to places like home for orphans and elderly and whatever. During these activities, she can learn more about what these ppl faced. I believe this is more constructive and meaningful than giving her a 大過.

Last but not least, I think what she said is just the minority but not the solely one in Hong Kong. In my blog, there're many ppl leave their comments and admit that they're not pity for the whole issue. This is not a mistake for one to take side in an issue.

Freedom of speech is important for Hong Kong. Freedom of speech is fundamental for society to develop and for members of society to be tolerant to each other. I recently read comments from discussion forum of Mainland students and they just disbelieved that Tienanmen Massacre had happened. This is the result for a country without freedom of speech.

I hope you, as an educator, will try your best to support freedom of speech as well as educating your students to become members of society who can think independently, so as to benefit our society and our world as well.

This letter will be posted in my blog (http://lamtw.blogspot.com/) and you're welcome to visit it anytime.

Lam Tin Wai