Students urged not to follow ‘clowns’ loitering outside schools

Students from primary schools have been advised to stay away from a man who dressed up as a clown asking them to follow him around.

The warning comes after the police received multiple reports of clowns attempting to approach children at several primary schools on Monday (Sep 20).

The clown was spotted outside of Temasek Primary School at Bedok South Avenue 3 and was believed to be an employee of an education centre.

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, the Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC, commented on the incident: “Whoever is doing what I assume to be some viral marketing nonsense, stop it!”

“Please remind your children, do not follow them and to report to the police. I trust the police are investigating this. It’s not amusing and just plain dangerous,” he added in his Facebook post.

The education centre involved in the incident is Speech Academy Asia – a public speaking school for children in Singapore. It has publicly apologised to parents for causing concern over their children’s safety in a Facebook post.

According to the education centre, its employees dressed up as clowns and stood outside primary schools to encourage parents to enrol their children in its speech programmes. 

Unfortunately, the centre did not anticipate the backlash it would receive from the public.

“We would like to clarify that; although indeed, the promoter is an employee of Speech Academy Asia, our team does not offer any form of monetary rewards for children to follow them. 

“We truly understand your concern for the safety of your children; hence we will be putting an immediate stop to our roadshows,” the organisation said in a Facebook post.

There have also been messages circulating on social media stating that those dressed up in clowns are offering money to children in exchange for following them. 

However, Speech Academy Asia has denied those claims and clarified that their “team does not offer any form of monetary rewards for children to follow them”.

Members of the public are advised to avoid strangers and report any suspicious activity or person to the police.