Earth Times
1st Feb 2008
Singapore - A teenager has been ordered by a Singapore court to write a letter of apology for swearing at a teacher who took away his MP3 player, news reports said on Friday. Jeremy Tan Wei Liang, 17, pleaded guilty to using vulgar language in class with intent to cause distress to his Chinese language teacher last April, The Straits Times said. The teacher had gone to to the police.
The incident arose after the teacher caught Tan's classmate using his MP3 player and confiscated it, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Benjamin Yim. Tan wanted it back, and when the teacher refused, he pointed at her nose and resorted to abusive words, the report said.
He then rummaged through her bag but could not find the player, the court heard. He hurled the bag onto a table and kept up the verbal abuse.
Judge May Mesenas left it up to Tan to decide if he would write the apology letter in English or Chinese. Tan could also be fined up to 5,000 Singapore dollars (3,700 US dollars). His lawyer will present a mitigation plea this month.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/181342,teenager-ordered-to-write-apology-for-swearing-at-teacher.html
