SINGAPORE – An incident in which a River Valley Primary School pupil allegedly hit a schoolmate in the face was actually an accident, not assault as claimed on social media, said the school’s principal.
In response to queries, Mrs Jennifer Pang said on Oct 8 that the school’s investigations established that the incident was an accident which also involved a third pupil.
The incident took place during recess on Oct 6, she explained.
Pupil A was identified in a TikTok video – which had been filmed by pupil B’s father – as having “punched” pupil B after stealing his wallet. Pupil A had indeed taken the other pupil’s wallet and snack.
Pupil B then got his friend, pupil C, to join him in chasing pupil A around the canteen, “during which student C accidentally hit student B’s lips with the wallet during the tussle”, said Mrs Pang.
She added that pupil A did not punch pupil B as alleged in the TikTok video, which had gone viral and amassed more than 32,000 likes since being posted on Oct 7.
In the video, which features a boy and a woman in what appears to be a hospital, a man is heard off camera saying that his son had his wallet and snack taken away from him by a schoolmate.
This schoolmate had also punched his son, said the man, with the roughly two-minute clip ending with a photo of his son’s bruised lips.
