cascada:

Thanks, ks2me. Will show it to my 2 DS and nephews to warn them of him.

Yes, ks2me posted the relevant link earlier. For your easy reference, here it is again:
http://forums.vr-zone.com/newsroom/314274-news-they-call-him-the-bishan-gay.html

You can see his photos there.

involvedparent:

Police called today to update us that they have interviewed BG and warned him not to harrass children. They do not expect him to show up at his usual haunts. Let's see how it turns out. Thank you for all your support.


Meanwhile, pls post and alert all of us if BG shows up again and we shall direct the police to 'talk' to him again.

involvedparent, I am so glad to hear about it! The children at his usual haunts are now safe. The question is whether he will now haunt other places? Will he now terrorise children in other parts of Singapore?

I hope parents will be vigilant and talk to their children from time to time to see if they are being harrassed by this man, and to report him to the Police like how you had done. We now know that the Police will act on this kind of harrassment, especially since they now have this man and his undesirable activities on record.

Hope your son has gotten over this traumatic experience. He is now SAFE!

xxjustakidxx:

Ever since last Monday, I haven't seen him anymore, the seniors too.

Remember, a few days ago I posted this reply from the Police (which I had received on Tues 23 Mar 2010) :
\"In view of your recent e-mails, Police have stepped up patrols in the
vicinity of the schools and Junction 8, with the view of locating the
subject and to engage him. We will also be conducting school talks to
raise the students' awareness, and to encourage them to call the police
should the male Chinese be spotted by the students.\"

From what I understand, involvedparent had also made a Police report around then based on his son's traumatic encounter with the man, so I guess the Police must have followed up and \"engaged\" him. The main thing is to ensure that he no longer terrorises students....

Good job, Police Force! :celebrate: I hope the man's \"disappearance\" is permanent!

xxjustakidxx:

Well, he's less active these days, as observed.

Good to hear that! Most likely he was questioned by the Police after the official Police Report was made by involvedparent and hence \"less active\". By this, do you mean you hardly see him in the bus/ at the bus stop nowadays or that he doesn't stalk students or take photos of students anymore?

tutormum:

Involvedparent, I suggest that you get the school to arrange a senior to accompany your son. The senior can also act as a witness to build up your case. Now, it's only your son's words against his so it's not a very strong case. This BG sure knows nothing much can be done against him at the moment and having been doing it for years confirms this. I also suspect that he's getting bolder and not to frighten you, he may move on to something else. So far from what I've read from the articles and comments, this BG thinks that as long as he is not caught with his pants down, he can get away scot free. :x :x The best is to get the senior tape his actions on the handphone. With evidence, this BG can be prosecuted. :nunchuk:

I agree with this suggestion. If the students can go in twos or in small groups, they can protect themselves by gathering evidence if one of the students gets harrassed. Strength in numbers!

If the man aka BG realises that students are now looking after one another, he may be frightened off and thus stop his predatory behaviour - and that's all the better. The idea is to deter him from harrassing the students.

involvedparent:

My son had an encounter again. This BG came up the bus 156 at MacRitchie (he was not on the 156 bus when my boarded it at RTC), came beside my son (who tried to stand further away unsuccessfully) and started blowing into his hair again. My son was frozen with fear and could not even shout out loud. My son acted as if he was going to get off at the next stop, and noticed the BG taking out his own wallet as if he was going to follow suit. At the next stop, after another boy exited, my son waited for a moment, and jumped off at the last minute so that the BG could not follow. He was successful. He waited for the next 156 bus and boarded. But to his horror, after the bus had travelled a few stops, he saw the BG waiting to board this bus! He immediately got off the bus at the same stop. He was crying at the bus stop when the mum came to pick him.


Police report made and actions have been planned out.

It must have been traumatic for your son, and I hope your son gets over this incident soon.

This man has intentionally harrassed your son, and I think you have rightly made a Police report. From what I've read from your previous posts, this is already the 2nd time that the man has purposely disturbed your son, and if nothing is done, this predator will probably stalk your son again. So yes, I think you've done the right thing to report this man.

I hope the Police will get this man. He must be stopped from displaying such predatory behaviour towards helpless children. Can you keep us posted here on this thread about what the Police is doing/ has done? Thanks.

Wishing you and your son well.

tutormum:

Good thing that we are alerted and can warn our children. :thankyou:

You are welcome, tutormom. Parents need to work together to warn one another of potential dangers facing our kids.

To Parents:


I started this thread to warn parents about this man who is observing SJI and RI lower secondary students as well as other students around Junction 8 (moniker given by students: \"Bishan Gay\"). We now also know, from other kaisuparent posts, that this man also observes students from HCI and other schools in Bt Timah.

I just received the email reply from the Police yesterday, in response to my various email to SJI, RI, MHA and of course, the Police. I am posting the relevant excerpts of the replies (in BLUE) for the noting of concerned parents:

Reply from SJI (received 15 Mar 2010):


\"Thank you for the email regarding the rather disturbing situation. We have met the police from the Tanglin Neighbourhood Police Post and have requested for them to patrol the bus stop where this middle-aged man has been sighted. We managed to find out that he has made appearances at the bus stop outside Raffles Town Club usually between 4 and 5 pm. This information has been relayed to the policemen from the above-mentioned police post. They have agreed to look into our request.

Also, when school re-opens, we will alert the school community about this. They will be told the number to contact - 1800-2559999 - should any student be harrassed or feel harrassed by this man. This is the number of the police post. The police will act when a formal complaint is made by anyone directly harrassed by this man.

Thank you once again for the information you have shared with us.”


Reply from RI (received 15 Mar 2010):

\"Thank you for your feedback.

We understand your concerns and can assure you that we have been monitoring the situation very closely.

This man has in fact been initiating conversations with the boys in public for many years. As some of the boys have felt uncomfortable, we have gone to the police to report the matter. However... the police told us that we are not able to take any action against him.

Earlier this year, at a meeting with all Sec 1 parents on 27 Feb, this issue was raised and we hope parents will remind their sons to practise personal safety (with regard to all strangers, whether man or woman). In fact, we co-operated with the press when they wanted to do an article about him in the Straits Times to help raise public awareness.

Nonetheless, we will definitely continue to monitor the situation because the safety of our boys is a priority and will advise them accordingly on how to handle the situation.\"

Frankly, I was quite upset when I received the reply from RI because it was clear that RI had (already) “gone to the Police to report the matter….(but) the Police told us that we are not able to take any action against him.” I felt that the man’s behaviour was predatory and hence it should be constituted as harassment; it was not just a one-time occurrence but one that occurred on an almost daily basis. The sheer number of students facing this fear daily is a disturbing phenomenon and MUST be stopped. Even if there was no criminal offence that the Police could have charged the man with at that point, there were still effective actions that the Police could have taken to deter him - like questioning him, warning him and keeping him under surveillance. After all, there was sufficient evidence from blogs and online forum discussions among generations of students harassed by him.

So I wrote again to the Police. I received their reply yesterday, and I must say that I am pleasantly impressed with their proactive reply this time:

Reply from the Police, Commanding Officer of Kampong Java NPC (received 23 Mar 2010):

“Police have been alerted to the presence of a male Chinese roaming
in the vicinity of SJI, RI and Junction 8 since 2008 by RI and SJI. Other
than stepping up our patrols in the vicinity, the schools have also been
advised to call the Police, should the male Chinese cause any harassment or
annoyance to their students. To date, our records showed that no report of
harassment has been lodged. There have also been no further complaints
after the initial information provided by the schools in 2008.

In view of your recent e-mails, Police have stepped up patrols in the
vicinity of the schools and Junction 8, with the view of locating the
subject and to engage him. We will also be conducting school talks to
raise the students' awareness, and to encourage them to call the police
should the male Chinese be spotted by the students.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your valuable
feedback.”

********************************************************

IMPORTANT!

If your child is stalked or harassed by this man, he can call the Police at this number: 1800-2559999.

This is the hotline of the Kampong Java NPC (near SJI), and the Commanding Officer there is fully aware of this situation. I suggest you give the contact number to your child – just in case.

(NOTE: I am awaiting clarification from the Police on whether there are any other contact numbers to call should students from schools in other areas need to report harassment. I will update the information when I get their reply.)


From: A Very Concerned Singaporean Parent

longreach:

If he is a private tutor, who dare to engage his service? I wouldn't risk it.


Glad to see that SJI and RI is taking it seriously and made police report. As more forumers report he was also spotted in NJC/NY/HCI bus stop taking pictures, perhaps parents from these school should also highlight the concern to the respective school management.

I am glad, too. I thought that the schools (RI and SJI) have been proactive about it. But the question is, what will the Police do now that they know about this situation? Are they waiting for a harrassed victim to lodge a formal police report before action is taken?

ks2me:

You can see his face here:


http://forums.vr-zone.com/newsroom/314274-news-they-call-him-the-bishan-gay.html

He sounded harmless from the report by ST but his behaviour would be construed as unusual.

He may sound \"harmless\", but his behaviour has certainly scared the living daylights out of many lower secondary students! In fact, generations of lower secondary students to be exact. I don't think our kids need to feel this sense of apprehension and threat in their everyday lives. Having to deal with psychological harrassment everytime they encounter this man can't be healthy for their well-being.