You should never pull anyone’s bra strap, even if you’re a teacher doing an inspection

While some netizens are torn or even insouciant over the bra-strap pulling incident at Nanyang Girls’ High School, people have to understand (especially the ones telling girls “It’s nothing,”) that there is no way pulling a child’s underwear is okay unless it’s to save their life.

During a routine uniform check, though, an insensitive and borderline abusive teacher has gone too far and pulled on girls’ bra straps. Who does that? Why are you so interested in the color of their bras when you can see it through a white blouse if they were violating the dress code anyway?

And anybody who thinks that this is okay better get their underwear pulled this way and that without warning and see how they like it.

Wait, what happened?

According to a report by Asia One, Nanyang Girls’ High School has apologised to parents over the recent incident of bra-pulling that happened during a uniform inspection.

Another report said that a female teacher had pulled the bra straps of the girls while inspecting their uniform. She had also unbuttoned their blouses to take a look at the color of their bra.

The female teacher was doing the checks on behalf of a male teacher.

Nanyang Girls’ High School authorities have mentioned that girls are required to wear white or flesh toned underwear beneath their uniforms. The incident happened last January 22, Tuesday.

The incident reached the media when a parent complained to Shin Min Daily.

The Shin Min report said that the parent is aware of the school rules that mentioned the students need to wear the appropriate underwear color beneath their uniform, but the manner of checking was inappropriate, which was why it caused great distress to the girls being inspected that day.

Before this incident, uniform checking was done visually.

What has the school done about the incident?

The Asia One report said that letters were sent out to parents that expressed regret over the incident and that the school holds the well-being of the students in high regard. The school also thanks the parents for feedback and patience in dealing with the matter.

What do netizens have to say?

Here are some comments from Singaporean netizens that may or may not upset you, based on how much of a misogynist you are:

Some people are just plain ignorant.

While others prioritise school rules over common decency. So pulling a bra strap on a child ISN’T a big deal?

This is just one valid concern when it comes to this issue.

Surprised this teacher didn’t get beaten up by parents.

We have to admit that this is a good alternative.

Doesn’t matter who pulled the strap. The problem is that someone pulled it without the girls’ consent.

Or the bra strap could be misaligned.

Why pulling bra straps is just wrong

Here are some reasons:

1. These are children. These aren’t college students, they’re in high school. If you even say anything about “Strawberry Generation,” you’re one step away from approving child abuse.
2. Teachers can use other ways to see if the bra follows rules. They can press the cloth of the blouse onto the skin or shine a light on the blouse’s back. Who needs to unbutton a blouse and pull the strap! The fact the blouse was unbuttoned should actually be harassment.
3. It’s never all right for someone to pull anyone’s bra strap unless consent is given. Otherwise, that’s harassment.

What do you think of the teacher’s actions? Let us know in the comments!

The views of the author do not necessarily reflect the views of Alvinology.

Header image from Shutterstock, woman bra strap