\n<\/p>\n
The lawsuit alleges that on the morning of Nov 8, 2024, Jenna entered the water from a boat after receiving permission to do so from the accompanying teachers for the trip. Shortly afterwards, the boat’s engine was engaged, and she was struck by the vessel’s rotating propeller.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the family’s statement of claim, the boat then reversed towards others in the water until one of the teachers shouted at the captain to stop. The claim states that Jenna was stuck under the boat at this time.<\/p>\n
The two accompanying teachers then dived beneath the boat to free Jenna, before fellow students helped haul her onto the vessel. She briefly regained consciousness and whispered: “Help me.”<\/p>\n
She was then brought to the Dhigurah Health Centre and was pronounced dead about 15 minutes after her arrival.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit alleges that the Maldives expedition formed part of SJII’s compulsory Outdoor Education programme, which all Grade 9 students were required to complete as part of the school’s curriculum. The expedition was run by the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme (MWSRP), a United Kingdom-registered charity engaged by the school.<\/p>\n
The family alleges SJII failed to assess the safety of the destination adequately, properly vet MWSRP as a provider for schoolchildren, ensure suitable supervision during the excursion and verify that marine activities were conducted under safe conditions.<\/p>\n
They also allege that the school gave parents repeated assurances about safety, including that it had “all emergency procedures in place” to address “every single scenario that can happen”.<\/p>\n
The family further alleges that SJII withheld information after Jenna’s death, refusing to allow the parents to meet the two accompanying teachers or to provide them with the school’s investigation findings despite repeated requests.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the statement of claim, no investigation report has been shared with the family.<\/p>\n
The claim argues that because Jenna was participating in a compulsory school activity while under SJII’s custody and care, the school owed her a non-delegable duty of care that could not be delegated to a third-party provider.<\/p>\n
According to the statement of claim, the school’s solicitors, Rajah & Tann Singapore, wrote in a letter dated Nov 21, 2025, that SJII did not owe Jenna a “positive non-delegable duty of care to protect and safeguard her from the risk of harm”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The letter also said the school had engaged MWSRP as an independent contractor and was “not liable for all negligent acts and\/or omissions of the MWSRP, its agents or servants or contractors”.<\/p>\n
CNA has reached out to SJII for comment. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
THE INCIDENT The lawsuit alleges that on the morning of Nov 8, 2024, Jenna entered the water from a boat after receiving permission to do…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--YGYkS8iT--\/c_crop,h_675,w_1200,x_0,y_471\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2025\/07\/17\/whatsapp_image_2025-07-17_at_10.25.44_am.jpeg?itok=NAGDuPLk","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4316,1899,26843,112,848,26844,17782,13618,308],"class_list":["post-70204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-died","tag-international","tag-maldives","tag-parents","tag-school","tag-sji","tag-sue","tag-teenager","tag-trip","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/70205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}