‘Please don’t let the school tarnish Kavindi’s image’

Original Message -----

From: Farah Tennakoon

To: editor@thesundayleader.lk

Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 8:56 PM

Subject: Kind Attn of : Ms. Ranee Mohamed

Dear Ms. Ranee Mohamed,  

My name is Farah Azoor Tennakoon, the best friend of Mrs. Sandhya Kumari Jayawardene, the mother of Anuththara Kavindi Jayawardene, the 14-year old girl from Musaeus College who hung herself with her school tie on 22nd July 2009.  Kavindi’s mother and I are best friends since August 2000 and Kavindi was a dear friend of my daughter.  I have known Kavindi quite closely since she was in Montessori with my daughter.

Her father is a professional/graduate accountant and her mother too was in the accountancy field before she gave up her job upon marriage.  Her mum is from Kegalle, an innocent, down-to-earth, virtuous woman who was a devout Buddhist.  Kavindi was an only child, extraordinarily beautiful and was very shy.  She was a studious girl whose report cards received from school always described her as a “Siyalu Dena Samaga Sahayogayen Kriya Karana, Vineetha, Keekaru, Sisuwiyeki.”  Anyone can take a look at her school books and report cards and see if she seems a disturbed or disobedient girl.

Kavindi’s mother was the kind of woman who even went to the extent of having a Bodhi Poojawa for my daughter who was a non-Buddhist, when she was sitting for her 5th grade scholarship exam, thinking of someone else’s child as her own. 

It is so saddening to hear that her name has been tarnished by the school making her look like a girl who was into porn, boyfriends and similar stuff whereas in actual sense she was a girl who did not even collect pictures of movie stars, cricketers or any such thing that a teenager of today would do but was always getting good grades at school and excelling in studies. 

In fact, Kavindi was the pillar of strength to her mother during their family ordeal of Kavindi’s father going through a kidney transplant about two years ago.  Athula, her father was not the “strict” father as depicted in the media.  He in fact would return home and keep Kavindi on his lap and ask her what happened at school or joke with her about things on TV.  Even after Kavindi attained age and showed all signs of a beautiful young lady, Athula petted her like a little girl. 

  She was very close to her mother and till her death Kavindi’s world and after school activities involved playing with her little cousins next door and helping her mother with housework. She encouraged her mother to do home-gardening and have plenty of vegetables grown in their 15 perch house and land, and loved seeing the produce being consumed. She was never into Facebook, computer games, hip electronic gadgets or any such thing. I was always in and out of their house as Sandhya was the only woman on earth (except my own mother) that I would trust to leave my daughter with whenever I had to leave my daughter with someone.  

During the past eight years, my daughter spent most of her holidays at their home where I would drop her off in the mornings and pick her up at evening and stay on for at least 1-2 hours chatting with my best friend.  Whenever I called my daughter in between, Kavindi would talk to me too and relate what they had been playing during the day and tell of their plans for evening play and I would often find Sandhya feeding both my daughter and hers, if I happen to call during lunch time. 

Kavindi played hide and seek, dolls, imaginary house, Lego and similar games with her mother, my daughter and her little cousins from next door and was innocent and unspoiled and a far cry from what is being told about her now. 

It is sad to learn from her classmates that a prefect from her school actually dragged her by her tie upon confronting her for playing around with a mobile (which did not even belong to her) and taken her to the Principal’s office.  This fact would now be denied by school authorities for obvious reasons but for a child who has never been reprimanded in her entire life for indiscipline just cannot bear such humiliation and public embarrassment. The school authorities should also appoint counselors in schools who are qualified enough to handle these kind of situations instead of having teachers and mere school girls (prefects) handling situations involving human emotions.

Even when her body was discovered hanging in the toilet, the teachers or authorities of the school had not even loosened her tie around the neck or given appropriate first aid to revive her.  The only thing Musaeus can do now is to tarnish her good name and make her look like a “bad girl” who committed suicide, thereby deviating the attention of the public to the fact that the girl was suspected, embarrassed in public, emotionally abused and mishandled by prefects and teachers who were not capable of understanding emotions of a 14-year old and never thought of repercussions of misjudgment, harshness, cruelty and public humiliation. 

She had in fact begged that it is okay to tell about the incident to her mother but never to tell her father because he was a kidney patient whom Kavindi always feared would die if he faces sadness.

Kavindi was the type of girl who was so shy that she would even nudge me and her mother in embarrassment if we ever spoke out in public in protest for small injustices such as being over-charged at stores or such similar small incidents and tell “aney randu karanna epa ammey, nikam innako ammey, etc…” and blush in embarrassment.  She is the type of girl who encouraged and loved the fact that her mother was among the very few mothers at her school who only wore a simple ‘Osariya’ whenever she had to visit Kavindi’s school. 

She never even allowed her mother’s saree blouses to have a deep-cut neckline and would protest against any body part of her mother being shown in public.  It is this Kavindi who today is being portrayed as the girl who would pose nude for her boyfriend and allow to be photographed or filmed.

Since the police have found out that Kavindi is not the owner of the mobile in question, then why isn’t anyone talking about the true owner of the mobile phone (the other student of the same school)? 

I migrated to Canada seven months ago but today each and every person I talk to in Sri Lanka knows Kavindi as the “girl who watched porn on her mobile and committed suicide in shame,” or the girl who had her “nude pictures” in her mobile, or such ghastly impressions.

Today, my best friend is a woman who hears her only child’s voice echoing around the house, sees her face every where, a broken woman with no hope for the future and a woman who wishes she died with Kavindi. 

She is a well-read but simple housewife whose world was woven around her only child.  She is still that devout Buddhist I knew who forgives the media for tarnishing her precious daughter’s name, forgives the people who did not provide timely first aid to her daughter when they found her hanging, forgives the prefects who manhandled her daughter, but the fact remains, Sandhya’s soul died along with her only child. Athula would have no interest in getting his regular dialysis treatment anymore as he was doing it all for wife and daughter.

My only appeal to you is appropriate investigation and justice to a name unduly tarnished.

Thank you in advance,

Farah Azoor Tennakoon

Teenage suicide

By Goolbai Gunasekara

The news of the recent schoolgirl tragedy saddened everyone who heard of it but the press and all those who seek to lay the blame on either the school, the teachers, the prefects or the parents need to be reminded that there are many teenage suicides every month, mostly outside Colombo. They rate but a minor mention in the press and do not cause this huge furor, simply because the schools these kids attend are not as prestigious as Musaeus College, nor are the children who kill themselves from the important schools of Colombo. 

Sri Lanka is supposed to have one of the highest teen suicide rates in the world. Reasons given are exam pressure, romance and parental severity. To this must be added a new cause – namely teenage depression. To ban all mobile phones seems to be an over reaction to one incident when there are so many other reasons for suicide to consider. 

My purpose in writing of a subject which is such hot news at the moment is neither to attack or defend anyone but merely to give my opinion (obviously a very subjective one) which, as I am also a teacher, might be of some relevance to the tragedies of teenage suicides that invariably take place for the reasons given above. Very foolish reasons would you not agree? But not foolish for the young person placed in a position where he/she faces parental abuse, social ostracism or a love-gone-wrong situation with which she/he cannot cope. Indeed the youngsters do not have the tools with which to cope. The coping skills have not been taught.

Ah, but this is not the main problem. These seemingly silly reasons for suicide can be greatly blamed on a hypocritical society which denies youngsters a healthy interaction with the opposite sex and teaches them that it is wrong, wrong, wrong to look at a boy in a romantic manner. In short Sri Lankan society seeks to deny nature itself. 

Let us take the boy/girl reactions to each other. As head of an international school I have many opportunities to observe children of a co-educational school in action – a school which allows normal interplay between students from the play group upward. 

Boys hate girls and vice versa when they are in the Junior School. I vividly remember my grand-offspring, KitKat’s, eight year old birthday party. A treasure hunt had been laid on in an effort to get everyone to mix. They did not.

“If the boys hunt we don’t play,” the girls declared. “And they smell too.”

“They cheat,” retorted the furiously insulted boys.

The adults held their heads in frustration. Mixing of the sexes was not on. 

A few years later we incredulously watched the same group at the same birthday party venue. Were these youngsters who refused to even speak to each other just a few years, earlier the same youngsters we were finding difficult to prise apart when they were 15? 

Times change. Norms adjust. With the tremendous advance of communication and modern technology teenagers have access to more methods of contact than ever before. Why then try to artificially prevent any contact which considers the ‘contactees’ damned for life? Rather let us teach healthy mixing and normal attitudes towards the opposite sex. 

Of course I grew up in a highly restricted home too. My parents were both in education and saw no reason for boys in my life, but they yielded intelligently to the situation, when it came up, that I might enjoy playing tennis with a boy... and a few months later, that he might be allowed to visit me. Again they yielded telling me about five times a day that they ‘trusted’ me. I was 15. 

I never worked out until I was much older exactly what it was that they were ‘trusting’ me  not to do and since I had plenty of opportunities for private chats in between sets of tennis there was no reason for cooing in darkened areas till I was much older and was university-ready. 

The point I am making here is that parents today simply must realise that a certain interaction plus an interest in the opposite sex is absolutely normal. A little sex education would certainly help. Parents! Are you giving it to your children or are you trying to foist this too on the school?  

What many of our children lack these days is EQ ( Emotional Quotient). We are so busy concentrating on their IQ (Intelligence Quotient) we forget that EQ is probably even more important. EQ seeks to assess how a person reacts to stress, to failure, to loss, to separation from loved ones, to socially awkward situations…in short, how people react to the entire gamut of human behaviour. 

Men and women of 40 may have much less EQ than a schoolgirl of 15 if that schoolgirl has been well guided. There are many teachers with no EQ whatsoever but who learn it with experience and guidance. There are others who never learn it and those who seem born with it. EQ is probably the most important part of a person’s mental and psychological health and some of the Sri Lankan narrow social beliefs do not help. 

Coming now to the suicide in question, it is my belief (again a subjective one) that what the young girl feared most was not necessarily what her parents would say, or even what her teachers had already said. What she probably could not take was a future which may never have allowed her to forget this one transgression. All her school life this would be remembered by classmates and teachers alike who genuinely felt they were right in reprimanding her strongly.

But justice must be tempered with mercy and a little good humour would greatly help to diffuse a tense situation. Having a mobile phone with a few suggestive pictures, as alleged, was hardly a felony. 

Methods of reprimand are not the business of this article but on a personal note I would say that an understanding superior or parent might serve the situation better than baton wielding.

I now come to the question of school discipline. There is a serious situation brewing. Every time a child is reprimanded are parents going to rush to the press or the Education Department with allegations of abuse against the principals? Generally the replies of principals are not heard. This is a sad, bad precedent for usually a principal understands the situation and is not governed by emotion. 

There is a further problem. Every time a child is legitimately punished the parents rush to the defence of their offspring. What happened to trust in the principal? Listen to this tale. A few months ago three older students were pulled up for some minor rule they had broken for the umpteenth time. The punishment was that they sat on the school corridors twiddling their thumbs for a few periods. Kids get so bored with this they rarely repeat the offence. 

Imagine my surprise when within an hour I had three phone calls from three irate fathers! Of course they had been contacted on mobiles but the boys were within their right to call since the interval intervened and mobiles may be used during the intervals. Of course they called on their parents knowing full well they would be supported in appealing against this ‘unfair’ punishment. 

Anyway the three annoyed fathers wanted to know why I had been so ‘severe.’ One call came from out of Colombo. One came from Bangalore and the other came from Bangkok. You see what I mean about lack of trust? (I am happy to report that the punishment stood.) 

Last Sunday, I was particularly surprised by an article by Shruti Mathews who gives the names (nom de plumes) of two old girls of Musaeus who are very critical of the school. The best school will have its detractors. Take Asian International School. Recently we had cause to de-badge a prefect. Parental fury knew no bounds.

12 continued teen age article

There was an outright refusal to acknowledge the child had behaved with any impropriety and of course a threat to sue me. Were that child to be interviewed, I am sure she would have said very much what the two past pupils of Musaeus said. But it would have been a totally slanted and biased and untrue view. Interviewing past pupils is not a good way of ascertaining facts. 

I knew the just retired principal of Musaeus and she was a gracious and charming head. I can hardly see her as having spread a reign of terror through the school to make school children actively unhappy. School days are never very happy ones in any case. Mine were not. They were tolerable but not ecstatic. Happy days are experienced in the halls of good universities.

International schools have the reputation (alas) of being unconcerned with ‘bad’ behaviour a la the Sri Lankan model. Nothing could be further from the truth. Discipline is very strict in most of them. As far as I know there have been no suicide attempts while the children were in school. Any bad behaviour outside the school can hardly be blamed on the school itself. Any blame for lack of morals, lack of religious training or lack of cultural values has to be laid squarely on the parents. 

One parent asked me what Asian International School was doing to inculcate ‘Sinhala culture’ into his recently USA returned 11 year old. My annoyed answer was to ask him what HE had been doing for the past 11 years. The school would educate his son well and discipline him while he was in class but his social, religious and cultural values were the business of the home and I took no responsibility for that part of his education. 

Lazy parents tend to foist all this on the school which is no longer able to cope with all of these extras plus hope to finish the syllabuses in time to meet an academic deadline. A school has a child for just 5 to 6 hours a day. His parents have him the rest of the time. What they do with those 19 hours will make and shape their child. So blaming schools for anti-social conduct is most unfair and schools should not even undertake to do things a parent SHOULD be doing. 

Schools today should seek to modernise their students, not westernise them. This is what many of the good private schools and international schools seek to encourage. A modern education brings with it modern ideas. Suicides are rare in these schools because I feel the students are that a little more liberally attuned as opposed to being ‘western’ attuned. 

Sri Lankans are regarded as being among the smartest in the world. As my sociologist father said, “It is because of the fish they eat which is brain building.” Whatever the reason there is no doubt that those from Kerala and Sri Lanka are highly intelligent. One must hope that we are able to formulate a system of education that brings our island’s children into mainstream of modern knowledge. 

That, unfortunately, is not happening at the moment. What a tragic, tragic shame. 

If ever you have gone to school...

From Nilupul Kulathunga

To: editor@thesundayleader.lk

Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 8:11 PM

At the outset, I would like to tell u how dreadful the title The school that failed sounds! Whatever school you have studied (if you ever have) should be ashamed of you and that school should take the blame for making persons like you. Someone who does not know anything about the school can not by any means say that MY school failed. Musaeus College is one of the best schools in SriLanka.It has nurtured many well educated citizens to the country who had truly contributed to the society. It has the highest standard in education and extra curricular activities. I am sure you have heard about many achievements of my school in the past 100 years. I am ashamed to think that you are a journalist as  you have disgraced the noble profession by writing something without verifying the facts. You have headlined  like that because even my 23-year-old brain understands how unethical and  unreasonable it is.

 I am an old girl of Musaeus College have been there from pre-school that is four  years till my Advanced Level till I was 19 years old. And I am now studying at university of Colombo, which is a leading university in the country. It was all given to be me by my alma mata. And I would also like to point put that I was a past prefect,a house vice captain of the school. I know about the school more than you or the person who wrote the particular article.

In this article this person says the child was made to kneel down by prefects. Let me tell you madam, not in my 15 years of school I have seen a child being made to kneel, not even by a teacher, let alone a prefect. I know the rules that apply to prefects and we were not even able to punish a child.we directly report to the class teacher.the prefects do not have any authority to punish a student. Never.

 And as you know madam the school or the principle can not give any comments because there is an investigation running about it.

I do not intend to tell you everythning that I know about this case.This mail comes to you to say that we, our school, deserves a formal apology by your paper for tarnishing our image without proper knowledge of the system of the school. 

Thank you

I was appalled to read the comments of Ms. Rukshani Lye on Ms Ranee Mohamed’s article titled “The school that failed.”

In the last couple of weeks, I am aware that four school girls committed suicide (one each in Colombo and Panadura, and two in Bakamuna). I am personally aware that the first two were quite normal and sane children. On what basis did Ms. Lye decide that the Musaeus girl was mentally ill? Having gone to greener pastures, has Ms. Lye forgotten that Sri Lankans do not insult the dead?

While thanking Ms. Mohamed for highlighting the tragic death of the girl, I am somewhat shocked by the lack of concern by the Sri Lankans and the responsible authorities about the suicidal attempts of children. There was no open discussion on this issue or the steps that should be taken to prevent them.

In 2007, 46 boys and 73 girls below 16 years have committed suicide in Sri Lanka. Of this, 39 ingested poisons and 35 hanged themselves. Having managed thousands of attempted-suicide survivors of poisoning, I can assure Ms. Lye that 99% of them were NOT mentally ill. Almost all of them ingested poisons on sudden impulse and were regretting, ashamed and guilty about the event, and certainly wanted to live when hospitalised.     

Has our education system failed to teach the students how to react to difficult issues, how to manage conflicts and how to control impulses?  

Professor Ravindra Fernando

Senior Professor of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

University of Colombo

ravindrafernando@hotmail.co.uk

MUSEAUS, hang your head in shame! 

From: Desmond Z. de Silva [mailto:desmondzds@gmail.com]

Sent: 11 August 2009 12:43

Subject: Fw: MUSEAUS, hang yr head in shame

Posted August 4, 2009 at 3:58 am

This is what really happened. Please dont create stories and tarnish and image of an innocent 14-year-old whose life was lost due to the incompetence of an educational institute.

When I heard of a girl jumping off a balcony of Museaus College and committing suicide sometime back I accepted the explanation in the media (obviously provided by the school) that this girl was suffering from depression and the parents were at fault for not informing the school.

When Kavindi Jayawardena was found supposedly hanging in the teacher’s toilet the rest of the country accepted the school’s explanation through the media just as I did the last time.

Let me tell you my concerns and inability to accept the school’s explanation this time; I am sure the rest of you too would start thinking of why two young girls of the same institution decided to commit suicide due to their parents fault as this school is eager to make us believe. 

I am a parent of a 14-year-old girl (only child) and am fully aware of the growing pains of a teenager of this age. A fourteen year old is half child, an adolescent full of curiosity and unaware of the changes taking place in her life.

If this fourteen year old was in the possession of a mobile phone which is banned from school, what right has this institution exercised to chastise her in a manner that would lead her to harm herself? I doubt very much that Kavindi really took her own life.

I know now that the phones contained no harmful material or images as the school has led the public to believe; the banning of cell phones in schools has further reinforced this myth. Why does this school try so hard to blame an innocent 14-year-old girl and parents who have lost everything having two deaths of students in one school within two years?

No action has been taken to investigate the real reasons for their deaths. Are parents of the other 6000 students in this institution convinced that their children will have an education which will make them good and responsible human beings having witnessed such horrendous situations and made to believe that this is ok and the victims are to be blamed for their deaths?

This institution that is called a school is hiding a dark secret with teachers acting as god’s supreme commanders breeding prefects wielding ultimate powers over innocent children coming there in search of an education. Teachers hold the power of life and death of students in this school. 

A school as I know it and would like it to be, is a place of education for children with gentle guidance to life reinforcing the good values parents and society instills in growing children. If a child commits a wrong doing it is the duty of the school to handle it with wisdom and thought of the impact of the corrective action on the growing child’s mind and future. Are the teachers at this institution qualified psychologists or even educated in psychology which should be mandatory for all teachers.

How is it that the prefects wielded absolute power to reprimand a fellow student to such an extent that she would take her own life? Eye witnesses who are silent due to unknown pressure today have seen Kavindi being dragged by her tie (with which she is supposed to have hanged her self) by a prefect of this school.

She was locked up in the teacher’s room and found hanging in the teacher’s toilet (note and not in the students’ toilet); can this be accepted as plausible explanation for the death of a 14 year old student?  What happened to the other girls who inflicted harm to themselves as a result of this incident? How did the school buy their silence? After such a harrowing experience, their parents are willing to risk the lives of their own children by keeping silent and letting the school get away with murder.

Kavindi, a beautiful 14-year-old child, a flower nipped in the bud is silent today. We will never know the truth unless someone comes forward as a decent human being is expected to do and tell the world the truth about the cruelty exercised by an education institution on children who dared break their rules.

Mostly I would like to tell the world that the only crime Kavindi committed was to be found with a friend’s mobile phone in the school premises; she did not own a mobile phone given by her parents or a so called boy friend. She is the only child of a professional accountant, a kidney transplant patient and not a cruel father who beat his only child.  The mother is a house wife whose entire life was formed around little Kavindi. She was a good student averaging 80% in all her subjects; she played the organ to sooth her mind at troubled times. She was surrounded by almost 30 cousins from the 14 siblings of her father’s side.

The school where she studied for 9 years did not offer a prayer for Kavindi while she was fighting for her life for two days in the ICU of a private hospital nor did they have a white flag at the school on the day of the funeral.

When she was found on this fateful day, supposedly after hanging her self, the teachers did not loosen the tie that was around her neck which would have saved her life nor rush her to the accident ward of the general hospital across the road from the school.

They hurried to the police station to make an entry prior to making any efforts to save her life and did not mention the reason for her condition when entering her to the private hospital which further delayed any action that would eventually have saved her life.

Before finally moving Kavindi out of your mind please dwell on what I have said for a moment and convince yourself that parents of today should endure such atrocities solely in the name of an education.

Kavindi may you rest in peace knowing at least that one individual in this world believes in the innocence of your fourteen year old mind.

‘You owe an apology to the school’

From: Uthpala Chandrasiri

To: editor@thesundayleader.lk

Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 1:02 PM

Subject: The school that failed (Review)

Dear Sir/ Madam, 

This is with regard to the article  named “The school that failed” on August 2, 2009. I went through this article and just want to say that this article is a pure insult to the Musaeus College. Musaeus College is known as a reputed, disciplined Sinhala Buddhist school for more than a century and it will remain so for another century regardless of the cheap attempts taken by media to tarnish the image of the school.

With regard to the recent mobile phone incident I would like to add some thoughts.

Mobile phones are banned from school and it is a school rule each and every student is aware of this fact. in such a situation it is the normal practice would be to take students to the principal’s office and inform parents.if this particular student did not want to go through this procedure she should know to be in her limits and obey the school rules. A 13-year-old keeping a phone without parents knowledge. so according to this particular article nobody has done any mistake but only the school is responsible???

I think media should be more responsible than this. when it comes to articles, before publishing please ensure the accuracy of them. this article purely attempts to attack the good name of school without drilling down the true facts. As i have been a student at this school I am very much aware of the disciplinary actions of the school which is not cruel as its mentioned in this particular article.

I personally think you owe an apology to the school for the damage and the insult done by this article.

‘Baseless, insulting work of fiction’

Original Message -----

From Lizzy Giovanni

To: editor@thesundayleader.lk

Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 4:20 PM 

Dear Sir,

This is regarding the review published in the Sunday Leader titled ‘The School that failed’ by Ranee Mohamed. Quite frankly, this is the most atrocious and slandering piece I have come across which anyone can decipher as a blatant and shameful rouse to sell more copies of your newspaper. For instance, what proof does this Ranee Mohamed have that the school prefects verbally abused this girl and punished her and ridiculed her? Where is the proof to your claim that it was not this misguided girl’s phone that was caught?

You have insulted one of the longest standing Buddhist girls’ schools in the district that not only prides itself in the academic performance of its students but also their outstanding performance in every field outside of study, which evidently makes the school a prime target for two-cent reporting from people desperate to make a mint.

If you think the continuing silence by the school, which, by the way, is the only way to protect itself from deceitful and worthless allegations such as those printed by Mohamed, is a sign that none will stand up to the absurd allegations newspapers such as yours seem to conjure,then you are sadly mistaken.

The ‘Review’ published in your newspaper is a baseless, disrespectful, insulting and extremely inaccurate fairy tale of the tragedy which unfolded and goes to show the depth to which the media sink just to sell a few more copies.

Whatever the reason behind the article, be it as a favour to the parents or merely to increase your sales, you owe an apology to a great school and to its students whom you have all portrayed as wicked Shylocks against a girl you have shown as innocent as the Virgin Mary.

I do not ask you to change your stance in the matter nor to go on a voyage of discovery for the truth. But the due process adhered by this country allows both sides the right to present their case and as a person situated near the heart of the controversy I know that you have fabricated  upon many points just to make the parents appear vulnerable and the girl innocent and to portray the rest, including the prefects who did not overstep their limits as you have so lied,in a bad light.

Therefore this is a request that you publish a formal apology to the principal, the students and the prefects of Musaeus College, and to the school itself, or be prepared to be prosecuted for lying so blatantly about a school which has guided the lives of thousands of women throughout many years.

One misguided girl, who in fear of her parent’s wrath (a fact, incidentally, not mentioned anywhere in your ‘review’) killed herself is no reflection, whatsoever on a school which has educated the Buddhist girls of this country for over a century.

As a person who has a lot of interest in the field of mass media, I ask you not to further insult the name of responsible journalism. Please keep a tab on what is being published in your newspaper.

If I wanted fiction instead of fact,I’d buy a novel.

Thank you.

Eliza Giovanni

Schocked at the tone

To say that I am shocked at the tone and language used in some of the letters we received at The Sunday Leader in response to our expose on Anuthara Kavindi Jayawardene, the 14-year old girl from Musaeus College who hanged herself with her school tie on July 22, 2009 – is putting it mildly.

While I can understand some of the “old girls” anger and dismay at having the “good name” of their school “tarnished”— I have to reiterate that the article written by Ranee Mohamed on August 2, brought to the fore, a tragedy of humongous proportions. As Goolbai Gunasekera in her very balanced view on the incident asserts Sri Lanka is considered to have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. A damning indictment indeed, on our society – for which we should all bear responsibility — including both parents and teachers. Truth be told, this type of unfortunate incident happens in rural schools too and go without notice, often. Yet, when it does happen in an elite school society needs to sit up and take note. 

Rushing to the defence of an educational establishment one is proud to have schooled at is justifiable.  However when some of those who have done so resort to slander and verbal abuse of the worst kind — Isuri Ruwinika (do read her letter) is a case in point – what is there left to say – but God help Musaeus College.  God help Sri Lankan society if these are indeed the products of one of the oldest colleges in this country who pride themselves as mothers, homemakers and professionals.

Ranee Mohamed is no cub reporter. An award winning journalist seven times over – Ranee rightly pointed out in her story of August 2, that Kavindi was an only child, beautiful and shy. 

Do read Farah Tennakoon’s letter reproduced elsewhere on these pages today. Ms. Tennakoon maintains she was a close and dear friend of Kavindi and her parents and writes that Kavindi “was a studious girl whose report cards received from school always described her as a ‘Siyalu Dena Samaga Sahayogayen Kriya Karana, Vineetha, Keekaru, Sisuwiyeki.’ Anyone can take a look at her school books and report cards and see if she seems a disturbed or disobedient girl,” she says.

Ranee, I know, tried to speak to the Principal and teachers at Musaeus College before she wrote her copy at least half a dozen times before we went to print. They refused to say one word on the subject. This too is understandable given the seriousness of the incident, given that a police investigation was in progress, followed by court proceedings. 

However, Ranee was not looking for a detailed response. What could it have cost the school to say “We are deeply sorry, shocked and saddened at what took place and are lending our fullest support to Kavindi’s family during this terrible time of need...” or words to that effect? 

But Musaeus College failed to utter those simple words. Instead the school and some of her products, namely the “old girls” have attempted to tarnish the name of Kavindi trying to make out that she was into porn, boyfriends and similar stuff.

Kavindi was only 14-years-old. A 14 year old is half child, an adolescent full of curiosity and unaware of the changes taking place in her life.

As an only child myself and now a mother, I have one question for the women who have rushed to the defence of the school – Would your response have been the same if it had been your daughter?

I can only conclude by saying that your insensitivity, your misguided set of principles and priorities and complete disregard for a shocking, deeply saddening tragedy should make you all hang your heads in shame!

As for all of us at The Sunday Leader including Ranee Mohamed — we will continue with our bold and courageous journalism. We remain unafraid, unbowed – and committed to say what has to be said – observing the highest principles of professional journalism.

Frederica Jansz

Editor-in-Chief The Sunday Leader

‘Cheap tactic to sell your paper’

Original Message -----

From: hemantha kulatunga

To: editor@thesundayleader.lk

Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 9:41 AM

The article about Museaus College written by Ranee Mohamed is total distortion of facts and cheap tactic to sell your newspaper. I am a parent of a former pupil. Neither prefects nor teachers have the power to kneel a student at Museaus. My daughter was in the school for 14 years ( from Kindergarten ) and I have never come across an incident where a student was abused. The two-bit writer may  have gone to such a school and was abused during her tenure. The school is the most respected Buddhist girls school in Sri Lanka which has produced many distinguished worthy citizens to the country including Journalists during the past 150 years.

 The article was definitely wrtten with malice and jealousy. The paper should not recruit writers such as Ranee Mohamed who are disgracing the entire journalistic faternity 

MANDAKINI RESIDENCIES ( PVT ) LTD

# 830, Rohina Mawatha

Pelawatta

Battaramulla

‘Your reporter is a female dog’

Original message -----

From: isuri ruwinika

To: editor@thesundayleader.lk

Sent: monday, august 10, 2009 5:35 pm

Subject: With regard to the article about dead school girl 

I dont like to call you sir..  In your newspaper that article which was written by the dog/bitch named Ranee Mohamed has insulted my school a lot. I wonder what the hell he/she knows about my school. We are still proud be Musaetes. Because of our school, we have become good, loyal and well-disciplined citizens. We know how our teachers guided us and showed us the correct path. Still we respect our school as well as pur teachers alot. Yet we obey all the rules and regulations of our school. And who the hell that idiotic Ranee Mohamed to insult our school like that.

Ever since I know, use of mobile phones are strictly prohibited in school premises. Not only about that, our dear teachers were and are very much concerned about our discipline, uniform and even our hair. Stupid girl, who disobeyed her school rules paid for what she did.. According to the religion I believe in, only failures and losers commit suicide.

If that rascal girl did love her school, even a bit she will never commit suicide like that. She knew that she was wrong. And she knew that even though the school forgive her, that her parents will never forgive her. Whenever something bad happened to a student, school calls her parents and advice them. Apart from that school never abuse or suspend students.

And wicked bitch/dog Ranee Mohamed has told that prefects kneel her down. I know how our prefects treat us. Who the hell is that bloody lady/man to say so..  I feel like killing him/her for insulting our dearest second mother.

So ask her/him to apologise for what that dog/bitch has written. And make sure to reveal only the truth...  Your paper is very fond of ruining something and messing up everything. So correct that fault soon. If not......

‘The school that failed must apologise’

Thank you Ranee Mohamed for exposing the harsh realities of school-life. There have been many instances of mental trauma inflicted on school children who have suffered in the past due to the vicious acts of fellow students and teachers. Even in the USA there was a young teenager who committed suicide due to the mean acts of her school friends, sadly, it was a Sri Lankan. Rukshani Lye of USA seems blatantly ignorant, to be labeled guilty on entering the school,  to be made to kneel. Though innocent, to hear the cruel jibe remarks of prefects, to be laughed, jeered and scoffed at, to be at the receiving end of verbal abuse, to be all alone in that moment with no hope, experiencing severe mental trauma surely can all add up to momentary  insanity, to push one so young to go over the edge.

One has to be at the receiving end at a school where one has been sent to learn, to be guided, only to feel hopeless and all alone, in total disarray of mind, most miserable. “This school that failed” should be made to formally apologise and explain the cruel blows thrown at an innocent young girl that resulted in her untimely death, to her parents and all other parents too. Let such cruelty never be meted out to any school child ever again. Let’s hope that the eyes of the authorities will open to take action against any school that drives a student to such despair. 

N. Perera,

A sad parent, Nugegoda

‘Suicide is a personal act’

Original Message -----

From: Lakmini Weerasinghe

To: editor@thesundayleader.lk

Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 9:34 PM

Subject: The school that failed

Dear Sir/Madame,

I refer to the above mentioned article in the August 02nd edition of The Sunday Leader, and express my deep disappointment in your newspaper standards.

Whilst it is one thing to acknowledge that there was a mistake on the part of the school, or the parents, or both, it is quite another to tarnish the image of a school from which thousands of Sri Lankan girls have been educated for more than 100 years. Why is there no mention of the thousands of girls who came out well educated and disciplined ladies from that same school which you mention in the newspaper?  

I too feel deeply for the girl who was the victim of the incident and sympathize for her parents.

However, suicide in itself is strictly a personal act, for which only the victim can be blamed. I agree to the fact it is regrettable that this particular student found a chance to take her own life within school walls. However an act of suicide only depicts weakness in the character of the victim herself, and not in her surroundings.

The Sunday Leader has intentionally or unintentionally attempted to blame the suicide of one student not only on the school itself but on school prefects. Please kindly understand that these are not just ‘prefects’ but they are also children. Your attempt to blame the death of a child on another child cannot be taken lightly under any circumstance.

I believe you owe an apology to the thousands current and past pupils of Musaeus College, for the article you have published in your newspaper. I sincerely hope to see better standards in you future newspaper editions.  

Thank You.

A disturbed reader

‘What has the school done to Lye?’

Original Message -----

From: Salma Peiris

To: editor@thesundayleader.lk

Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 3:51 PM

Subject: The school that failed - a response

Ranee Mohamed, your article did hit the nail on the head. I read Lye’s letter over and over again to ensure that I had not missed out anything and that I got the meaning right. The tone of the letter was anger. Anger that her precious school’s image was tarnished, anger that the prefects were found fault for doing their job. There was no kindness; no remorse that a young life was snuffed out even before she had a chance to start life; no sadness that a parent had lost an only child. In short, no feeling of sadness that a normal human being would express even for the death of a dog or cat.

What has the school done to Lye, but squeezed out all the milk of human kindness. What is left is a shell with no feeling for human suffering, no sensitivity for the suffering of another human being. In this sense the school had failed. If she is a sample of a product of Museaus College, if she is an example of a prefect of this school, God help all those poor kids who have to suffer under these self appointed snobs called prefects.

The duty of a school is to produce complete human beings who in turn would be good citizens of this country. A complete human being should foremost be a kind person, sensitive to others’ feelings and sufferings. The image of an institution is secondary to all these prime feelings that make a human being . Failure to produce a good human being, points a finger at the school that has failed to inculcate these basic feelings in its children.

I too feel deeply for the girl who was the victim of the incident and sympathize for her parents.

However, suicide in itself is strictly a personal act, for which only the victim can be blamed. I agree to the fact it is regrettable that this particular student found a chance to take her own life within school walls. However an act of suicide only depicts weakness in the character of the victim herself, and not in her surroundings.

The Sunday Leader has intentionally or unintentionally attempted to blame the suicide of one student not only on the school itself but on school prefects. Please kindly understand that these are not just ‘prefects’ but they are also children. Your attempt to blame the death of a child on another child cannot be taken lightly under any circumstance.

I believe you owe an apology to the thousands current and past pupils of Musaeus College, for the article you have published in your newspaper. I sincerely hope to see better standards in you future newspaper editions.  

Thank You.