Exhibitionist Student

One afternoon nine years ago, I received a phone call from my Principal during the break time of my school's annual athletics meet.

"Mr. Thye, I want you to come over to the security office in Bintang Plaza now, " commanded the Principal in a grave tone.

"Yes, but may I know what is happening?" asked I,feeling totally perplexed.

"Your student, Christopher, has been caught exposing his genital to a female sales assistant."

"What!?" I exclaimed in disbelief. Christopher was a shy, soft-spoken boy who had been transferred to my school from Bintulu three weeks ago. It was difficult to associate him with the perverted deed.I was also baffled by one more thing. Why was he in the shopping mall? He should have been in the stadium by now. The break time was almost over.

When I voiced out my doubt upon the validity of the case, the Principal asked me not to waste any time and rush to Bintang Jaya soon as I could. He sounded unusually impatient and gruff. I had a feeling that he would bark at me had I asked more questions. Being unable to drive, I asked a colleague to take me to Bintang Plaza in his Wira.

When we reached the security office in the plaza, we saw Christopher, the alleged delinquent, standing with his head down before a security guard, a young woman and my Principal. The security guard was a dark-skinned man in his late forties while the woman a fair-skinned lady in her early twenties. Judging from her angry look, she must have been the sales assistant whom the boy had harassed. I gasped inwardly when I scrutinized her. The way she dressed really turned heads. She wore a sleeveless light-pink blouse with a deep cut V-neck which showed some white flesh of her cleavage. She matched her top with an equally revealing pair of hot-pants which exposed her bare thighs. Her attire was downright inappropriate for her position as a sales assistant.

Upon seeing me, the Principal rose and said, "Encik Mansyor, this is Mr. Thye, the boy's form teacher."

"Mr. Thye, I am Encik Mansyor," said the security guard.He reached out his hand to shake mine.

"Okay, boy," Encik Mansyor turned to Christopher, "You said that your form teacher could vouch for your innocence. Tell him what actually happened now!"

The boy did not say anything. His chest was heaving with emotion.

"Ya, Christopher, what happened?" asked I, putting my hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Mr. Thye," the boy looked up at me and said," it was a misunderstanding. I will never do such a thing."

"You will never do such a thing!?" hissed the young woman. She shot the boy a condemning glare.

"No, you misunderstood me," Christopher defended himself through his choked voice.

"I misunderstood you!?" the woman raised her voice, "Who unzipped his fly and fished out his penis in front of me? Did I imagine that myself?!"

Seeing that the woman was on the verge of losing her self-control, the Principal asked her to calm down and explained to me that Christopher had been caught exposing his genital to the young woman while window-shopping in a unisex boutique, the place where the sales assistant worked.

"I happened to be outside the boutique when she screamed," Encik Mansyor recounted, " I rushed in and caught hold of the boy.Linda, the sales assistant, told me that he had unzipped himself in front of her...."

"I... I did not do it," interrupted the thirteen-year-old boy, "something happened to my belt. Its buckle became loose and I was trying to pull my jeans up."

"Did your belt buckle really become loose?" asked I.

The boy nodded meekly in the affirmative.

"Don't listen to him. He is lying," the woman said through gritted teeth,pointing an accusing finger at the boy.

"Christopher," said the stern-looking Principal," Pull up your shirt and let me see your belt."

The boy hesitated. His face turned paler and paler.

"Show me your belt!" repeated the Principal.

Reluctantly, the boy pulled up the lower helm of his shirt. Our eyes all focused on the belt loops around the waistband of his trousers.

"You are lying," declared The Principal, "you wear no belt!"

"I did," said the boy, "but I left it in the boutique."

"As far as I can remember, you never pulled out your belt in the boutique," said the security guard.

"That's no use telling us such a lie," snapped Linda, the sales assistant.

"Do you want me to phone your parents?" threatened the Principal.

"No, no, don't phone my parents!" the boy begged loudly.

My mind was totally blank now. I looked sideways at Mr. Choo, the colleague who had taken me to the plaza. Our eyes locked in a tacit agreement that nothing could be done to defend the boy.

Christopher finally admitted to have exposed his genital to the sales assistant. He signed a document promising that he would never commit such indecency again. To our greatest relief, the sales assistant accepted his apology.

"Mr. Thye, you can now return to the stadium with Mr. Choo. I will take Christopher back to his home," said the Principal.We were all outside the plaza.

"Yes sir," I nodded.

Just as I was about to enter my colleague's car. Christopher tugged at my shirt and said, "Teacher, believe me, I am innocent!"

Shocked, I asked him what made him own up in the security room.

"Mr. Thye, I had no choice. All of you did not believe in anything I said!." He broke down into tears.

"Come on, get into the car!" The principal bundled the sniveling boy into his car and drove off.

I remained rooted to the spot where I stood until the car disappeared in the distance.

After six months, the boy transferred back to Bintulu with his parents.