KOTA KINABALU: A teacher disagreed that SMKA Tun Datu Mustapha did not consider the feelings of Zara Qairina Mahathir’s mother after her death, in which she (Mama Zara) was removed from the school’s official teachers-and-parents WhatsApp group on July 16.
Yuslina Badrum said she was aware that Mama Zara had been removed from the messaging platform after the incident.
However, she did not know who removed her, when it happened, or why, and she did not make further inquiries about it.
Apart from removing Mama Zara from the group, the school also failed to inform her of the findings of the internal investigation and did not provide her with a copy of the diaries.
Regarding Mama Zara’s request, Yuslina recalled that she had given a soft copy scan to Cikgu Norasimah on July 17, at around 2pm.
However, she did not know, nor did she ask, whether Cikgu Norasimah herself had handed the copy to Mama Zara. This was because she knew that Cikgu Norasimah had already started her leave on July 17.
She agreed that she could have contacted Mama Zara herself to send the scan but did not do so, adding that she did not think of sharing the diary with Mama Zara directly at the time.
During the inquest into the cause of Zara’s death, Rizwandean asked about speculations on social media related to Zara’s incident.
Rizwandean: Within the first to the second week after Zara’s death, Mama Zara and her family made several posts on social media asking about Zara’s case. Is that correct, teacher?
Yuslina: I’m not sure if it was those people who made the posts… but I did see them.
Rizwandean: If the school had officially informed Mama Zara about the diary and the internal investigation, this could have prevented questions and speculation about Zara’s incident, right, teacher?
Yuslina: I think the school still needs to get advice from the Malaysian Education Ministry. Teachers or public servants cannot just issue any statements at their own discretion.
Meanwhile, Solehah Md Noh, 35, a teacher of the school since August 2015, said that on July 17, at about 1pm, she, together with four other teachers, went to Queen Elizabeth Hospital to visit Zara in the Neurology ward.
The 50th deponent testified that when they arrived at the ward, she saw five family members of Zara, namely Zara’s aunt from Kuala Lumpur, her grandmother, her cousin, her father, and her grandfather.
Solehah further said she heard a conversation between Zara’s aunt and someone who had just arrived, stating: “We have already discussed that we do not want to do a post-mortem because we want to expedite Zara’s burial.”
She also said she heard Zara’s grandfather say, “Don’t do a post-mortem, later they will have to cut her up.”
“Then I heard Zara’s family discussing arranging a hearse to transport the body to Sipitang,” said Solehah.
She also agreed that the incident involving Zara on the night of July 15 could be classified as bullying because it was verbal bullying.
“This was due to the presence of offensive words directed at Zara in an angry tone by senior students, which could cause emotional distress,” said Solehah.
The trial will continue on Monday.
