Sengkang Green Primary School caned and suspended a student after he sent death threats to a classmate’s mother.
The school also suspended two other students for their role in bullying the nine-year-old victim.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday (20 Aug) night, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said the victim would return to school without requesting a transfer.
Source: Google Maps
The bullying was first highlighted by the victim’s mother in Facebook posts on 14 Aug, where she claimed three boys had bullied her daughter in her class for about six months.
After the family complained about this to the mother of one of the boys and the school, she received harassing calls that escalated into death threats.
Source: Ni Yin on Facebook
The victim’s mother claimed that attackers targeted her daughter again despite her filing a police report and alerting the school, MOE, and their Member of Parliament (MP).
She added that the girl is too afraid to return to school and is receiving professional psychological support. She asked for an immediate transfer to another school.
In its statement, MOE released a detailed timeline of events, saying that there had been “a series of squabbling and verbal exchanges” among the Primary 3 students involved since the beginning of the year.
At the end of April, the victim reported student A for using “an offensive slur” on her and another classmate, but the victim herself had also used an offensive slur on student A.
Their form teacher facilitated a verbal apology between the students involved.
In mid-July, the victim requested to change her seat, but the teacher decided to monitor the situation. He noted that the victim was still talking and laughing with students A and B, the ministry said.
The victim’s mother said she came home crying on 24 July, saying two classmates physically assaulted her after reminding a classmate to be quiet.
The next day, on 25 July, MOE said the victim requested to change her seat again, saying students A and B had used inappropriate language on her, and student C had touched her face without consent.
However, she also admitted to using inappropriate language on students A and B.
The three students were “guided to apologise to each other and focus on mending their friendship”, MOE added.
Later, the school informed the victim that they would change her seat the following Monday.
But the next day, on 26 July, the victim’s mother reported receiving death threats.
Source: Google Maps
Following the death threats, the school immediately suspended students A, B, and C.
Investigations revealed that student A had obtained the victim’s mother’s phone number from his parent, and all three students had made multiple prank calls to her.
Student C sent the death threats in the form of audio messages.
The school’s vice-principal informed the victim’s parents about this on the same day.
The school would check the three students’ bags when they returned.
The vice-principal shared a safety plan with the victim’s parents and emailed it to them on 31 July.
However, two further incidents took place.
On 30 July, teachers found that the victim had used hurtful words on a classmate, including a racial slur. That classmate then sprayed water on her in retaliation.
“Both were counselled for their actions,” MOE said.
On 7 Aug, student C swung his bag into the victim during school dismissal, causing her to develop a bruise.
Source: Zaobao
MOE said it caned Student C on 12 Aug.
Following this, the school contacted the victim’s parents on 14 Aug, arranging to meet them on 18 Aug for an update.
But before that happened, the victim’s mother made her initial Facebook posts, then posted again on 16 Aug, claiming she had not received any safety plan from the school.
The mother’s posts were in response to the school’s statements carried in media reports on the case, where it claimed her daughter had also engaged in hurtful behaviours.
The mother took issue with this, calling for them to produce evidence and reserving the right to take legal action.
She also said her daughter has refused to return to school since 11 Aug.
When the meeting finally took place over four hours on 18 Aug, the school ran through the full sequence of events with the victim’s parents, MOE said.
This included “the hurtful behaviours that the affected student had engaged in”.
Finally, her parents agreed for the girl to return to school with an “enhanced safety plan”.
They would also not make any more transfer requests.
Source: Google Maps
MOE said the school addressed each incident “in a timely manner”.
It also took firm disciplinary action while “seeking to restore friendships and help the children to learn and grow”, it added, noting:
The affected student had herself engaged in hurtful behaviour on some occasions, and the school had similarly handled these episodes in an even-handed manner.
As for the three students, they will receive further disciplinary consequences, “including caning”.
MOE said it understood the anxieties of affected parents, but urged them to work closely with the school in the interests of their child’s well-being, adding:
When parents choose to publicise a dramatised, one-sided account on social media, it causes further emotional distress for their children and hinders school efforts to rehabilitate and reconcile.
This case has led to online attacks and doxxing of educators and children, it revealed, describing these as “bullying behaviours” that send a wrong signal to children, it stated.
Also read: Mother of Primary 3 student exposes daughter’s long-term bullying in S’pore school
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps.