An 18-year-old girl, identified as AN from Padang Sidempuan, North Sumatra, passed away yesterday after she drank liquid pesticide nine days earlier.
According to reports, before she died, AN admitted to her family that she attempted to commit suicide after she and her friends found out that their teacher, identified as E, had been leaking national exam answers to one of their classmates, who happens to be E’s daughter.
E, along with two other teachers, then allegedly threatened AN and her friends that they would have them jailed if they told anyone about the exam answers leak.
The threat was apparently more than AN could handle. When she went home from school that day, she went to her backyard and drank pesticide. Her parents later found her with a foaming mouth, and they took her to a nearby hospital.
Sadly, nine days later, AN succumbed to her injuries.
It’s not yet known if the teachers would face sanctions for the exam answers leak, and if they would be considered complicit in AN’s death. No criminal investigation into this case has been launched.
But AN may find justice yet. Two of her friends, who were also threatened by the teachers, spoke out to the media about the alleged favoritism and the threats they received.
“The three of us were intimidated, threatened to be put in jail and fined Rp 750 million. Ibu E’s daughter was given the exam answers, but the others weren’t. There was a teacher who urged Ibu E to have us jailed,” they said, as quoted by Tribun today during AN’s wake.
The school’s principal said she was not aware of any exam answers being leaked in her school.
Every year when national exams roll around in Indonesia, there are always stories about exam answers being sold to students, often by teachers or school administrators. Sadly, this time the foul practice seems to have claimed an innocent girl’s life.
