A sexuality education talk by a Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) staff member drew plenty of flak from netizens after a slide deck that contained discriminatory remarks against the LGBT community emerged online.
The presentation, titled “Community Health”, was part of an assembly session for their secondary four students on July 13.
The staff member who gave that presentation has since been reprimanded and suspended from giving such lessons, said HCI.
Photos of slides from that presentation were uploaded on social media platform Reddit on Saturday (July 16) with some slides showing statistics of what the LGBT community are “so proud of”.
These included how “1 in 15 homosexuals is a paedophile”, “78 per cent of homosexuals have sexually transmitted diseases” and how “51 per cent of domestic violence cases occur with same-sex couples.”
PHOTO: Reddit/Singapore
While the source of these statistics in the presentation slides are unknown, a netizen pointed out a similar image shared by a Twitter “troll” account in June.
This presentation was allegedly not vetted by HCI, one Reddit user pointed out, adding that the school’s principal would be addressing the students about it on Monday (July 18) morning.
Several Redditors expressed their outrage towards the school for giving their students “misinformation.”
PHOTO: Screengrab/Reddit/Singapore
A netizen wrote: “I’m so disappointed that this was allowed to shown to the students in an assembly. Can you imagine [how] those LGBT kids [must] be feeling after having dealt with their own internal struggle with their sexuality?
PHOTO: Screengrab/Reddit/Singapore
Responding to the Straits Times’ queries on Monday (July 18), a spokesperson from HCI shared that the school had met their students to “address their concerns”.
The staff member who gave the presentation had used content outside the scope of the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) Sexuality Education curriculum in his slides, the spokesperson said, adding that the staff member has since been reprimanded and suspended from giving such lessons.
According to information on MOE’s website, the topic of homosexuality, as part of sexuality education for schools from Primary five to junior colleges, covers the importance of respect and empathy, and the law concerning homosexual acts in Singapore.
AsiaOne has contacted MOE for comment.
In Oct 2014, a student from HCI accused a sexuality and relationship education workshop, conducted by a Christian charity, of promoting gender stereotypes.
This article was first published on AsiaOne and republished on theAsianparent with permission.