Panel clarifies British School report prompted by suicide

The independent review panel (IRP) put together by British School Manila (BSM) in the wake of a student’s suicide in February, seeks to clarify that the report recently released by the school management was not the original it had submitted.

In a press statement earlier this week, the five-member IRP headed by Ed Chua, chair of the Shell companies in the Philippines, said the report released to parents of BSM students in April was “edited and abridged” and thus should not be solely attributed to the panel.

“We are issuing this statement as we have been approached by a number of parents who have children at BSM thanking us for the work we have done but also asking if the released report is the same as our report,” Chua said.

On Feb. 6, a senior BSM student, 18-year-old Liam Madamba, jumped to his death from the sixth floor of a car park building in Makati City. According to his mother, Trixie, Madamba had a private meeting with an angry professor on Feb. 5 over an essay he submitted containing plagiarized lines. This could have caused the abrupt change in the behavior of her son, she said.

In a letter she later addressed to fellow BSM parents, Trixie said she just wanted to know the truth about what happened in the meeting.

The Inquirer obtained a copy of the IRP report as released to BSM parents on April 17. It stated that the panel was convened to perform two functions: to review the school’s processes and practices dealing with plagiarism for Year 12/13 students, and   to review BSM support structures for students in the International Baccalaureate   program.

The 10-page report made a reference to Madamba’s case without mentioning his name, in the part pertaining to the panel’s review of BSM documents—school handbooks, presentations, communications to stakeholders and confidential notes—which “supported the school community after the death of a student on February 6th 2015.”

The report also recalled that Madamba’s mother forwarded an anonymous letter reportedly from a group of BSM parents requesting the IRP to interview some selected parents and students. But the report noted that the request was silent on whether the people nominated for interview were aware of it, why they were selected, and what kind of information they were supposed to give.

Because of these questions, the IRP proceeded “without additional” testimony.

It went on to recommend a review of BSM policy on stakeholder relations, particularly between the faculty and students, and of all penalties for school violations to ensure they are “reasonable and culturally and educationally appropriate.”

The report was released by board of governors chair Simon Bewlay and school head Simon Mann.

The Madamba family could not be reached for comment on the IRP statement. Another BSM parent interviewed by the Inquirer on Wednesday said she did not finish reading the report since “it meant nothing” as far as Trixie Madamba’s search for the truth is concerned, as it centered only on the school’s “processes.”

Chua lauded BSM for offering scholarships to “deserving students like Liam” and playing “a big role in the overall community.”

But he pointed out that management “must see the virtue of transparency and rectitude, protecting the institution regardless of consequences to individuals.”

Chua said that when the panel asked why the released report was edited and abridged, they were told that the school’s Council of Trustees “elected to use the IRP report as one of several inputs and modified the report for purposes of clarity.”

“The heading on the released report states that the report is only sponsored by the Council of Trustees and lists the members of the IRP in a manner that implies their sole authorship. It does not cite the report’s final editors or its other sources. These points taken together would give the misleading impression that it is the report of the IRP as originally written,” he added.

He explained, however, that the panel could not release the original version since they signed a nondisclosure agreement with the BSM.