Reporters did not care for students privacy: River Valley High School student on being photographed after leaving crime scene

Singapore — A River Valley High School (RVHS) student requested for reporters to “be more understanding” of their situation after getting photographed while they walked out of the school following the killing incident of a student.

A 13-year-old Secondary 1 student at RVHS was killed on campus on Monday (Jul 19) allegedly by a 16-year-old Secondary 4 student.

Upon arriving at the scene, the police found the student in a toilet, lying motionless with multiple wounds.

A Singapore Civil Defence Force paramedic pronounced the student dead at the scene.

The alleged teen assailant has been arrested by police. An axe was also seized as evidence.

Following the incident, the Facebook page Wake Up, Singapore posted screenshots of a message sent by an RVHS student.

The student aired concerns regarding the reporters and photographers covering the incident.

“My class was the first to be released, meaning we were the first class the reporters were going to see,” said the student.

They were informed by the school to say, “I need to go home” should a reporter approach them.

“All of us were scared, tired and shocked from hearing the news in school and having what seemed like a walk of shame as the reporters and photographers lined up to take pictures of you as you walked out of school; it truly was anxiety-inducing.”

The student shared that the reporters had followed them with their cameras and “watched their every move.”

Shortly after, the students were then shocked to see pictures of themselves on several news websites.

“The reporters did not ask for permission to film us, and furthermore, never informed us that our faces would be plastered on today’s headlines.”

The student highlighted that their faces weren’t censored, which made them “uncomfortable.”

“These pictures served no goal other than to create content for these news pages, as there is no point in filming school children who were completely uninvolved in today’s incident,” said the student.

“We thought that the reporters would be more understanding, given that we just left a crime scene with the realisation that one of our schoolmates was killed, but no.”

“They (to put it bluntly) did not care; they just wanted something to post onto their news pages.”

The post noted in its caption that the students were “unable to express shock or grief” without a reporter approaching them to ask them questions. /TISG

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River Valley High School student stabbed and killed on campus, leaked screenshots claim attacker had an axe