A Yishun-Innova Junior College (YIJC) student is making headlines for taking his jokes too far as he was caught on camera mimicking terrorist gimmicks on Racial Harmony Day on July 21.
The video has since been shared on Reddit, TikTok and Wake Up Singapore’s Instagram account, sparking disappointment and concern among netizens.
“YIJC student being racist during racial harmony day,” the video caption noted as it was uploaded on the SingaporeRaw subreddit.
A male teenager dressed in traditional Arab attire for men, including the “kufiya” headgear, was seen going from classroom to classroom and enacting beheading scenes.
The teen entered a classroom and slid his right hand across the neck of another teen kneeling and wearing a black hood over the head.
The teen with the black hood falls to the floor as the student in Arab attire jumps up and down while exiting the classroom.
He moves to another classroom with another teen wearing a black hood. The student hurriedly leaves his black backpack and flees the room.
He enters and leaves at least five classrooms in the 28-second video, only dropping a black bag on two occasions before fleeing the room.
His actions presumably indicate he had dropped a “bomb” or killed a “hostage”, just like an actual terror attack.
Others filmed the student’s antics while some played along like jumping out of the way as the black bag landed on the floor.
According to a Today report on Saturday (July 23), the Ministry of Education (MOE) was aware of the video showing a “misbehaving student” from YIJC.
“The student is currently cooperating with police investigations,” said MOE.
“YIJC has spoken to the student to help him understand that his actions were inappropriate and that care and sensitivity must be exercised in Singapore’s multiracial and multireligious context,” MOE added.
“I think there’s something wrong with the youngsters nowadays,” said a netizen on the incident. “People died by such acts done for real in other countries, and families survived these experiences. For them to think it’s funny and for the people watching to think it’s humorous shows that there is a lack of sensitivity and maturity in our schools.”
“Do you educate your students on what is racism?” asked Facebook user Ann Lim, tagging YIJC. “Clearly, what they did is inexcusable. Their years of education have been wasted. Action speaks louder than words. These are not young kids but soon-to-be adults. The lack of discipline among your students in the limelight recently is (facepalm emoji).” /TISG