Student escapes punishment for PDA videoing of teacher

A student who used a PDA to secretly film a classmate being given a sound scolding and who later posted the video on the web has been let off with a warning, according to the daily newspaper the Straits Times.

This closes an incident which has sparked off much debate in the island republic. Some admire the student for revealing the goings-on in his elite, "pressure-cooker" school, while others have said it was an invasion of privacy. The policy of allowing such recording devices into schools and public buildings has also come under scrutiny.

The postage-stamp-sized, grainy, three-minute video clip, shot on a Sony Clie handheld, showed a somewhat hysterical teacher reprimanding the student before tearing up his homework in front of the class.

The incident happened in Raffles Junior College, a pre-university school known for high academic achievement that has turned out many of the country's top civil servants and corporate executives.

Principal Winston Hodge yesterday said both the boy and the teacher will receive counselling, and that the boy has apologised, according to the report.

Some quarters were pressing for harsh punishment for the boy, saying that such disrespect for authority should be dealt with severely.

On various hardware hobbyist websites such as the Singapore Palm Users Group (SPUG), the forums have been buzzing with discussions about the moral implications of the boy's actions, and inevitably, the hardware he used.

Camera-enabled phones and PDAs have sparked off debate in several parts of Asia. In Japan, bookstore owners are asking browsers to buy magazines rather than take pictures of them. In Korea, the government is asking for makers ensure that camera-phones emit loud alerts when pictures are being taken. In Australia and elsewhere, such devices have been banned from changing rooms and high-security areas such as military installations.