If you haven’t yet, it may be time to teach your kids about “stranger danger.” Especially after parents of a few primary school students in Singapore raised alarm for suspicious clowns loitering around school grounds.
According to a Facebook post uploaded on Monday (20 September), people dressed as clowns were allegedly asking students to follow them.
Clowns In Primary School Grounds Leave Parents Concerned For Safety
Image source: Facebook / Tan Chuan-Jin
This afternoon, a photo began circulating online, showing a clown standing near a bus stop outside Temasek Primary School.
There was another clown sighting outside Tao Nan School in Marine Parade, as per The Straits Times. This prompted the principal to send an alert to parents to advise their kids not to follow the clowns.
Mothership also reported a clown spotting in Angsana Primary School. But fortunately, the young girl sought help from a parent near the bus stop.
(There have even been reports that the man dressed up as a clown would approach students and allegedly offer S$1,000 for the child to follow him. This was later denied from ever happening.)
Police Are Now Investigating The Matter
“I trust the Police are investigating this. It’s not amusing and just plain dangerous,” noted Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin in his Facebook post.
Manpower Minister Tan See Leng also shared his own statement on the issue and wrote, “I implore you to please remind your children to be vigilant, and stay within the school grounds if they’re waiting for parents, or approach a member of the school staff if they need assistance.”
Clowns Loitering Around Primary Schools Found To Be PR Stunt
Image source: TAP Reader
After circulation of the strangers dressed as clowns in school grounds among parents, a TAP reader directly messaged Speech Academy Asia about the issue.
When asked whether the clown is a staff of theirs, the centre confirmed that indeed is and apologised for any inconvenience it may have caused.
Director of Speech Academy, Asia Kelvin Tan, also told ST that its marketing team was sent to areas in the east and west of Singapore over the past two weeks to promote the centre and its courses.
Enrichment Centre Behind The Clowns, Apologises
Not expecting backlash for their clown PR stunt and the uproar from parents, the centre quickly released a statement through a Facebook post at 2.34pm on Monday.
Speech Academy Asia wrote that they wished to extend their “sincere apologies for the cause of concern over the safety of your children.”
“We would like to clarify that; although indeed, the promoter is an employee of Speech Academy Asia, our team do not offer any form of monetary rewards for children to follow them. Additionally, our promoters strictly do not take any children out of the vicinity,” wrote the centre.
They added, “We truly understand your concern for the safety of your children; hence we will be putting an immediate stop to our roadshows.”
Lead image source from Facebook / Tan Chuan-Jin.
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