Grief over teen's tragic death in school

 Grief over teen's tragic death in school

SINGAPORE - She was a cheerful girl who always brought a smile to everyone's face.

This is how family and friends of Shina Adriana Hendricks remember her.

The 14-year-old Spectra Secondary School student fell four storeys from her school building on Tuesday at around 9.30am.

Condolence messages posted by some of her schoolmates on Twitter indicated that Shina was trying to demonstrate a jump when she lost her balance and fell.

She was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and then transferred to KK Women's and Children's Hospital, where she died from her injuries.

Speaking on behalf of the family, Shina's aunt, Ms Sandra Ross, 46, said: "She was a joyful girl who had a soft spot for animals and especially loved cats and dogs.

"She also enjoyed her studies and never gave any problems to her parents."

The youngest of three girls, she was quiet and gentle.

Shina's ambition was to join the police force as a detective, said Ms Ross, a crew manager in the marine industry.

She added that Shina's parents and sisters were unable to speak to the media as they were still grieving over their loss.

"The feeling of losing a child and having to bury your own child, it's a very bad feeling," said Ms Ross.

She said Shina and her classmates were on a toilet break when she climbed over a railing on the fourth storey and fell to her death.

The family believes that a classmate had dared Shina to make the jump and that she had not been performing parkour at the time, as reported in the media.

Parkour practitioners run, jump, climb or vault over obstacles to get from one point to another in the fastest way possible.

She said: "Shina isn't a very sporty or physical person, so parkour is not something she would have done. She never liked roller-blading or that sort of thing.

"We are not sure what happened that day. We won't know what Shina was thinking. But she might have been under peer pressure or a dare.

"She was barely a teenager, just 14. (Teens) don't know any better and have no sense of danger,"

The New Paper understands that the police are investigating the death as a case of misadventure.

Ms Ross hoped that the incident would remind youth not to dare each other to perform dangerous stunts, and also send a message to "be the bigger person and walk away from dangerous dares".

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This article was first published on Oct 23, 2015.
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