In recent months, the Malaysian education system has been rocked by several fatal incidents involving school-aged students.
In October 2025, a 16-year-old female student at Bandar Utama 4 was stabbed to death by a 14-year-old male student at the same school
Earlier, a 10-year-old Year Four pupil in Seremban was found unconscious in a school toilet and later died; the case is under investigation.
A 9-year-old pupil died after falling into an uncovered sewage pit at a school in Lenggeng, Nilai.
In Kangar, a 14-year-old male student fell from the roof of a pedestrian walkway on school grounds after allegedly vaping; he survived but was injured.
In Sabak Bernam, a Form 3 student fell from the third floor of a dormitory; investigations including possible bullying were launched.
These incidents are not isolated — they highlight multiple dimensions of risk in school environments: violence among students, potential bullying, and physical infrastructure failures.
Why is this such a serious concern? Schools are meant to be safe spaces for children to learn and grow, yet:
- The stabbing at the Bandar Utama school shocked the nation: police cited emotional impulses and social media influences as contributing factors.
- The infrastructural incident (the sewage pit) shows that physical safety and proper maintenance are not always guaranteed in school premises.
When such tragedies occur, they undermine trust in the system — among students, parents, teachers — and can have lasting psychological impact beyond the immediate victims.
They show overlapping risk domains: emotional and psychological health of students, supervision and monitoring, discipline and school culture; physical safety and infrastructure, and external factors (social media, peer relationships, access to weapons).
What can be done? One solution is a multi-layered prevention approach. Prevention must be holistic.
Strengthen Students’ Emotional And Relational Safety
Schools should invest in early identification of students showing signs of distress, aggressive behaviour, isolation or withdrawal. Regular counselling, peer-support groups, and open communication channels help.
A student who harbours unexpressed feelings or impulses (as appears to be the case in the stabbing incident) needs support.
Promote a school culture where students feel safe to speak up about peer conflict, harassment, bullying, emotional distress. Monitor the influence of social media, gaming, online groups.
Reinforce Physical Safety And Infrastructure
Regular audits of school facilities: drains, pits, stairs, corridors, toilets must be hazard-free. The sewage pit incident showed tragic consequences of oversight.
Schools should have clear safety checklists, maintenance schedules, and hazard reporting systems (students or teachers can give the alert if they spot any signs of danger).
On-site supervision must be thorough: adequate staffing, teacher and staff oversight in all areas (toilets, less-supervised zones) especially during high-risk times (breaks, before/after school).
Emergency protocols must be put in place: schools must practise drills (though more typical for fires or earthquakes) and ensure that students know how to act/respond if they or peers are in danger.
Review Disciplinary, Behavioural, And Access Controls
Schools should have clear policies on weapons, prohibited items, threats. The stabbing involved a knife brought into school.
While not intrusive, schools might consider random checks or supervision during high-risk moments (with respect to rights and privacy).
Bullying, harassment, and threatening behaviour must be flagged and addressed early. The oversight of such behaviour can ease tensions that escalate.
Schools also need clear protocols to work with law enforcement authorities if there is any threat of serious violence.
Engage Parents And The Community
Parents must be part of the safety net, they should understand signs of distress, aggressive behaviour, and online risks (social media, harassment).
Schools can host workshops for parents on digital behaviour, emotional health, spotting early warning signs.
Schools can also work with community and civic organisations for mental health outreach, extracurricular activities, and peer mentoring.
Policy And Governance Level
The Ministry of Education (MOE) must enforce minimum standards for school safety in terms of infrastructure, staffing, counselling provision, and student well-being services.
Comprehensive data on school incidents (violence, deaths, major injuries) can be collected to identify patterns and high-risk locations/situations.
Inter-agency coordination between education, health (mental health services), social welfare authorities, and the police must be promoted.
The government should also consider stricter controls on social media among youths following the stabbing case.
Each tragic death is irreversible. The emotional, psychological trauma for families, classmates, teachers is profound.
Prevention is far more cost-effective than having to deal with the aftermath of tragedy. Schools are critical formative spaces; safety is foundational for learning and development — if children feel unsafe, their learning suffers.
Addressing school safety comprehensively sends a signal about how society values children’s lives and welfare.
Let’s look at what Singapore is doing. We should learn and emulate some of these practices in our country for the benefit our Malaysian children.
The Singapore Police Force, together with the Singapore Civil Defence Force and Ministry of Education have published a “Security in Schools” guide specifying perimeter fencing, lighting, control of outsiders, and the monitoring of student movement.
Schools in Singapore have a formal “emergency preparedness” policy: training, response roles for staff, collaboration with external agencies.
They also have a school safety SOP (standard operating procedure) that emphasises a whole-school safety culture, prevention of foreseeable incidents, staff capacity building.
At Beatty Secondary School, the student safety philosophy includes values like Discipline, Resilience, Empathy, Adaptability, and Mindfulness.
The recent deaths at Malaysian schools highlight a sobering truth: physical, emotional, and relational safety in schools cannot be taken for granted.
By adopting a multi-pronged prevention strategy — including stronger emotional-support frameworks, safer physical infrastructure, better behavioural monitoring, greater parent and community engagement, and robust policy governance — we stand a better chance of ensuring no child has to pay the ultimate price for failures we can avoid.
Dr Rakhee Yadav is a paediatrician at Damansara Specialist Hospital.
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
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