The photo was taken last August. Six months later, it is still making faces go
red, no thanks to its circulation via the Internet.
AJC's principal of five years, Mr Tan Tiek Kwee, told The Y Scene that the
photo of the kiss was not a result of some fancy digital trick, as some
suspected at first. It was just a result of a 'silly prank', he said. The 'fun'
pose, captured by a photographer from AJC's Photographic Society, was for the
class to keep. As the photographer said 'One, two, three', the girls kissed on
the count of three.
Mr Tan claimed that the tutor and the other classmates were not aware of the
quick peck - until the photo was developed about a week later. The
vice-principal then took immediate action to confiscate the photo and retrieve
the negative.
Mr Tan did not want us to speak to the tutor and the girls, but said the tutor
was 'unhappy and disappointed' with what happened. When confronted, the girls
had cried - out of remorse.
Mr Tan said, "They said they had not pre-planned what they wanted to do.and it
was done on the spur of the moment. 'They wanted something creative but they
went overboard." He added that there was no 'special relationship' between the
two.
The girls have also been punished. They had to do community service in school
and write a reflection on what they had done and why they did it. Mr Tan added
that the girls' parents were informed and they had apologised to the principal
and the college.
Just when they thought the matter was behind them, the photo was put up for an
online auction this month. An ex-student also e-mailed Mr Tan, to tell him that
he had received the photo as well. Mr Tan, who thought that he had destroyed
all evidence of the photo, was bewildered.
Upon further investigation, he found that three copies of the photo had been
made by a member of the Photographic Society. The boy had kept one for himself
and passed the other two to his schoolmates. Mr Tan said, "One of them passed
it to his friend, a polytechnic student. What happened after that, we can't be
too sure."
The online auction had started on March 9. Within five days, there were seven
bids for the photo. The starting bid of SD $13.14 had risen to SD $53.30, but
the auction was cancelled when the school wrote to the site.
New Paper Singapore
