ALAN Chan’s final words to his daughter’s teacher before he handed her over for a school trip now sound like a haunting omen.
“Bring her back in one piece,” he said. Just days later, he was told over the phone that Jenna, 15, had been struck by a boat propeller and killed.
The , in the Maldives around 45 minutes after suffering catastrophic injuries on the school trip.
Her last words were: “Help me.”
Nearly , her parents say simple activities like family meals are still unbearable without Jenna there.
Holding back tears, her mum Jennifer told The Sun: “Even if we do eat meals together, it’s really painful because it’s so obvious that Jenna isn’t there.”
She added: “As a bereaved parent, you don’t move on. It’s still as difficult talking about it today as the day we found out that she passed away.”
Describing his emotions after hearing of his youngest daughter’s death, Alan told The Sun: “Our world shattered forever.”
After months of fighting for justice, her parents Alan and Jennifer described the excruciating journey desperately searching for answers from Jenna’s school, the Singapore-based St Joseph’s Institution International school (SJII).
Alan and Jennifer, from Leeds, filed a lawsuit against SJII in July, on what would have been Jenna’s 17th birthday.
They alleged SJII “refused to be held accountable” for Jenna’s death, tried to cut them off from communicating with the teachers who had accompanied the students on the fateful trip in the months following, and completely mishandled the situation.
Jenna had entered the water after being given permission by teachers to do so, according to the lawsuit.
Moments later she was .
According to the lawsuit, her leg was cut open, and there was an open wound on her back through which parts of her intestines were visible.
Another student was also injured in the horror but survived.
The children had been snorkelling between Lux Maldives Resort and Dhidhdhoo island on a stretch of sea known for its unpredictable and difficult currents, according to reports.
The boat which the children were on, the MV Sapphire, did not have any emergency oxygen on board, so a nearby diving boat provided some.
Neither was any helicopter available at the time, and Jenna arrived at the nearest health centre roughly 45 minutes after sustaining her fatal wounds, according to the lawsuit.
Alan and Jennifer have also questioned why the school chose the Maldives for a trip – a country with a history of .
At least 112 tourists died in sea-related activities in the holiday hotspot from 2020 to 2023, according to local authorities.
And its dangerous realities were laid bare when .
Jenna’s mum recalled the heartbreaking moment she received the phone call that changed their lives forever.
She was phoned by a school administrator who told her the principal wanted to talk, causing her heart to sink.
“A kid on a school trip, the principal wants to talk to you, you know it’s going to be bad,” she said.
Then the principal broke the news: Jenna had fallen into the water and died.
“I remember me saying, what? What do you mean she died?” Jennifer recalled.
Alan said: “We were speechless.”
They raced to the school to meet with staff, before allegedly receiving a disturbing email.
As the school scrambled to bring their daughter’s body home, its outdoor education department sent an update describing the expedition’s daily activities – with no mention that Jenna had died, according to the lawsuit.
Jennifer said: “We were there in the office sitting there getting the news that she died and making arrangements about going to Maldives and this email comes up.”
Alan said: “This email comes and it’s the daily update, and in the daily update, you got a picture of Jenna right there in the briefing, you know, ‘they’re all having a jolly good time’.”
The couple, who now stay primarily in Singapore, also said in the lawsuit that other parents found out about Jenna’s death before they did.
Alan also remembered his last goodbye to Jenna’s teacher at the airport which now reads like a brutal twist of fate.
He says he told the teacher: “Over to you, bring her back in one piece. It was a joke… and we all had a giggle.”
Alan added: “We trusted them fully. Why wouldn’t we trust them? You know, this is what you expect.”
Alan, who taught kickboxing at the school, said SJII appeared to have “all the bells and whistles” when it came to safety.
So they were left totally shocked and speechless when they were informed of what had happened.
After months of trying to get answers and find closure for Jenna’s death, the couple say they were forced to investigate Jenna’s death on their own.
Alan highlighted the “extraordinary lengths” they had to go to for a shred of information about Jenna’s death.
“All we want to know is what happened,” he said.
“One year, 11 months on, we have not had any report or anything about what happened.
“The school is in Singapore; the charity is registered in Britain and Jenna died in the Maldives.
“We’ve had to navigate three countries just to find out who’s doing what. How is anyone supposed to cope with that?”
They said they filed the lawsuit as they had exhausted all of their options.
“It left us with no choice,” Jennifer said.
She added the school had continued to organise trips for their students without a moratorium.
A whitewater rafting trip has been scheduled for this year in India and a similar trip took place last year following Jenna’s death, according to the lawsuit.
Alan and Jennifer questioned how these trips could take place without a proper review being produced in the aftermath of their daughter’s death.
“Everything carried on as per normal, and it is carrying on again this year,” Jennifer alleged.
“No moratorium at all, they just brush it off and they carry on.”
Asked if they fear for the children going on these trips without the school properly probing the case, Jennifer said: “Honestly, we do… that is a big concern.
“Jenna is a social justice person, and I’m also doing this because I know that’s what she would want me to do.
“She would want me to make sure that nobody else’s life is put at risk, because that is who Jenna is.”
St Joseph’s, a £26,000-a-year private international school teaching children aged between four and 18 in Singapore, denies any wrongdoing.
The school set up the trip with UK-registered Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme (MWSRP) charity – an operator Jennifer and Alan allege the school failed to properly vet.
Jennifer and Alan say they hope the lawsuit ensures other children aren’t subject to such risks in the future.
“We hit all these dead ends, which actually is the most extraordinary thing about this,” Alan said.
“It’s not that we have questions about why and how our daughter died… it’s the extraordinary lengths that we’ve had to go through just to get the basic facts I think we deserve.”
Jennifer said: “Every part of it is just nightmare on top of nightmare… it’s just absolutely horrific.”
SJII told The Sun: “The school denies the allegations stated in the claim, which have misattributed fault to the school.
“As such, the school has retained legal counsel to defend the claim.”
They added: “The school maintains that it is not liable for the negligence of the MWSRP.”
The school also denied any suggestion they withheld information from Alan and Jennifer, said they had reached out to the couple several times, and claimed to be “open to meeting with them when they are ready”.
MWSRP declined to comment.
