hey team.
some of u guys might be wondering why the sudden msg from ps saying that he's leaving. Its actually quite a long story. It's like all these while, the team and him they have been fighting internal factors. internal factors meaning they face pressure even within the school itself. And the person behind it is well, our sch's pe head of department. yeah, him. he's got this thing with the canoeing team since dunno when but it got worse recently.
For the bdiv nats schs, they lost and came in 2nd not because they were a weaker team, but because mr menon only allowed grace (this new ip jnr) who is what he claimed as the only legitimate substitute to race. But grace's father didnt allow her to take part. ok so why was there this need for substitute, it was because lina's partner, Sharon, fell from cheerleading and she had to go under the knife to remove a blood clot in her head. So there was a need for the substitute to replace Sharon in the k2 event. But grace's father didnt allow her to race. In the end, they had to forfeit the event, which means lina cant race. so mr yong wanted to withdraw her from b div and let her go under a div instead since the k2 event had to be forfeited. But this change to the b div, has to go through mr menon. But no matter how they tried to present their case, it was a very hard and straightforward no. in mr yong's words, "we hv presented a very big gift to the other schs" by losing lina. it was only until recently that mr yong told the jnrs that he msg lina to tell her that is it ok they stop fighting for her to be changed to a div, because they really tried so hard but yet nothing was heard or done from the other side.
Prior to the b div nats schs, e b div team had shortage of members for the girls side so they thought if they could like use rowers like lina, wanda, audrey etc [who were termed as ip3s]. So they went to look for him to ask if it was allowed. First, mr low went and mr menon showed him the rules, so it was a no. Then mr yong and ms lim went tgtr and they were presented with the same rules only to be met with no again. even mr yong himself was thinking that mayb it was really the rules and that they should just forget it since it really was the rules. But then it was ms lim, who spotted the so-called 'flaw'. the rule stated the age limit. it suddenly struck her that ip3s who havent turn 18 yet could fit into the rule though they were already ip3s. So she immediately pointed it out to him. Then it was then he realised he couldnt hide it that he said very suddenly acting like as if he really didnt know, "oh! i thought u meant the ip3 scholars.." all these were what ms lim told me. she said at first she didnt believe mr yong when he told her that mr menon is trying to "play tricks". But when she learnt that mr william tong as well as some other staffs, know abt ip3s who were below 18 cld take part in nats schs, her heart sank. i didnt really get it either at first. my qns to her was so what if they know abt it? she replied and said the fact that they knew abt it just shows that they were informed by the department which also meant that the HOD told em. it was then i realised, my 2 yrs in nj, i hv been laughing along with this person's jokes during assembly, only to realise now that this guy's actually a real b*tard. (sorry but i really think he deserved this title.)
it was not all yet though. after the bdiv nats sch, the next day, the press wrote something about their team which sorta like implied that they took advantage of overaged rowers and yet lose to tms. it made mr yong very unhappy because the whole thing wasnt the way the press thought it was. So mr yong wrote back to the reporter who made that remark to defend the team but it was like kinda to no avail since reporters dont care about such stuff. So mr yong wanted to at least "clear their names" in front of the college during the prize presentation. As u all know, prize presentation for nats schs is usually the day immediately after the last day of the competition since nats schs is like a major thing. But mr menon didnt allow the team any prize presentation at all. When mr yong and ms lim pressed him again and again for it, he finally said he would but they wld have to wait for 3 wks for a full slot during assembly. And that day was if im not wrong mon or tues (1st or 2nd may). But on that day they were suddenly told that they can only get the half slot, coz there were others. when the speaker for the team spoke, he forced her to cut short, resulting her not reading out some quite important lines which mr yong added to let the college know the real situation.
mr yong was telling them that it had come to a point in which like mr menon has the power to affect the outcome of e nats schs since e pe department is always in charged of planning it. Then during their debrief ystd, mr yong said somebody told him that last yr during nats schs, yingqin's race. yingqin was already on his way to the start line. then the starter walky-talky-ed mr menon asking what shld they do now? mr menon replied v calmly, "start without him." think yingqin's incident and how it happened was alot of i-dont-know-how-it-can-actually-happened thoughts but after hearing what mr yong said, i think i now know what EXACTLY happened.
He's shortchanging the team dunno whether its because he's trying to get it even with mr yong or he's trying to get the whole team. So mr yong's decision to leave which he mentioned during debrief could bring about less problems for e school, the team and himself. That day that we all got the msg was when he msg mr menon saying he wish to step down as the canoeing teacher with immediate effect. Then there was this series of msg exchange between them. Then mr menon finally got a little worried seeing the situation like that, he forwarded mr yong's msg to mrs cheng and mr mark low.
Today was the day mr yong met mrs cheng for their talk. its like now, its either he stay the HOD leave, or the other way round. so one ll hv to leave..
As for how it turned out, im not too sure also, but from ms lim she said that mrs cheng was very supportive of mr yong so.. yeah. For me, i knew abt mr menon being a person that we should be wary of few months back, but now i think he 's really someone whom we should not only be wary of but also stay away from.. ha. ok sounds weird but u get the idea ya.
i felt the urge to put it down on our team blog because i felt the need to let u guys know what SORT of person this guy is and what he's doing to our jnr team. i ll nv laugh at his stupid lame jokes ever, again.
|mich
