Two JC girls in suicide tragedy
By Angela Lim – July 9th, 2010Email Facebook Twitter Print
In what a state coroner describes as a “sad coincidence”, two Pioneer Junior College (PJC) classmates died within three weeks of each other by jumping from high-rise flats last year.

Ho Yi Xin, 17, had ambitions of becoming a doctor, and was described as a hardworking student with high expectations of herself, according to a Straits Times report.

The second-year student was seeing a private psychiatrist prior to her death as she was experiencing anxiety in school and at home. She was not able to concentrate on her studies and had problems sleeping.

On the day of her last visit to the psychiatrist on July 3, she was found dead at the foot of Block 533 in Jelapand Road in Bukit Panjang. She was believed to have leapt from the 24th storey of the block, where her silver-coloured bag was found.

At her death inquiry, the court heard that the introverted Yi Xin, had confided in her classmate in May last year that she was depressed over a detention form given by her favourite teacher for being late.

Just seventeen days after Yi Xin committed suicide, her classmate, Wong Peek Yian, jumped to her death from her seventh-floor bedroom window at Jurong West Street 81. Peek Yian had just found out she had done badly in her mid-year examination and was dreading meeting her vice-principal over her poor performance.

She had sent text messages to her boyfriend, full-time national serviceman Valentino Lee, 19, just before her death. He was told that Peek Yian’s teacher had advised her not to see him too often.

State Coroner Victor Yeo recorded a verdict of suicide on both deaths. He indicated that there was no evidence to suggest that Peek Yian was motivated to follow in Yi Xin’s footsteps.

This tragic case of two young lives lost once again draws attention to the pressures Singapore’s students face in schools today.

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