Chan Chun Sing - RVHS Incident.

 

In Minister Chan’s recounting of the RVHS Incident yesterday, one thing stood out for me. This is his narration. 

“”Towards the end of lunch break, a group of students encounters a Sec 4 student outside a toilet. He is holding an axe and asks them to call the police. The Sec 4 student asks another group of students in the classroom next to the toilet to call the police.””

That was to me not just a call to alert the police, but a cry for help. It was a cry for help after the realisation that he had done a terrible act, one that has left someone whom he doesn’t know lying motionless on the toilet floor. 

Still holding the axe in his hand, the 16-year old pleaded twice to the students to call the police. One group were passers-by and the others were in another classroom. At that time, the boy just wanted help, help for the boy in the toilet and help for himself. And in that moment of clarity, the axe he held in his hand was turned to ploughshare. 

As I read the account, I realised that that fateful morning, there were two strangers in the 16-year old boy’s life; one was the boy lying in the toilet and the other was himself. For a moment, that person who committed the act was not the same person who asked for help. The former was someone the latter had been struggling with for many years. Most tragically, it was a fight that costs an innocent stranger his life. 

My heart truly goes out to that innocent life, a life who is dearly missed by many, his parents and friends. A life who was full of potential, of hope and of unsurpassed joy to his loved ones. 

Minister Chan also recounted what happened in the aftermath. He was approached by the 16-year-old boy’s classmates. They too were asking for help from the minister. “Amidst their pain and confusion as to what had happened...they just had one simple request: “Minister, please help our friend. Please take care of him.””

Minister Chan said: “I saw grace, I saw compassion, I saw solidarity among the students and the staff of River Valley High. The way they carried themselves, the way they responded to the incident, will be etched in my mind forever.”

I believe that that call for help was one made by his classmates because they know him. For 4 years, he was a student in the school, and a friend to them. I would also guess that they know him as someone who had his own demons to fight. And two years ago, he nearly gave his own life in that struggle for sanity to save himself. Alas, it was no less one tragedy compounded by another tragedy, yet Minister Chan saw grace and compassion, in the aftermath. 

Let me go out on a limb here to say that unlike the shootings in US and NZ, where people saw only hate and disunity, this incident however, I see what Minister Chan saw too...I see compassion, I see grace. And it was indeed a cry for help, community and unity. It was a solidarity or a bond, however broken and tragic, that has stood on both sides of the divide, one holding the axe and the other lying on the floor, yet this bond seeks to unite bleeding hearts, and heal broken souls. 

I therefore earnestly pray for the victim and the assailant, both too young, for our schools and for our community, and for RVHS. May we all grow wiser and stronger and never let go of the lesson learned from this tragic incident. 

And by the way, I just want to say that River Valley High is a name with an inspiring juxtaposition, a name that speaks about a river running through a valley. That river represents life, resilient life, amidst a valley that challenges us all to rise above to greater heights. It is also a reminder that we are stronger than this, and we will overcome. These are the ideals we hold on to, and they allow our feet to remain grounded. 

In another part of his speech, Minister Chan reminded us parents about how we ought to define success. It made a lot of sense to me too. You can read it up yourself. Maybe, I will leave that part for my post tomorrow morning.

For now, I wish to end with the lyrics of a song titled “Scars In Heaven” by Casting Crown. It is a song about grace. Journalist Grace Ho highlighted it in the papers this morning. And it is said (via online rumour) that this song was played by the boy’s father in his wake. Here is the chorus: -

“The only scars in heaven, they won’t belong to me and you;

There’ll be no such thing as broken, and all the old will be made new;

And the thought that makes me smile now, even as the tears fall down;

Is that the only scars in heaven are on the hands that hold you now.”

Indeed, that is grace, an amazing grace whose scarred hand has never let us go.