Silence, grief after a teen’s sudden death
EARLY mornings in Sitio Little Hawaii in Barangay Cogon-Pardo, Cebu City used to be filled with Clester Jake Nacional’s voice as he went about selling the boiled bananas
Silence, grief after a teen’s sudden death
Family plans to file a case against officials of the Inayawan National High school, believing that their negligence led to the death of 13-year-old Clester Jake Nacional But school officials say they didn’t do anything that could have caused Nacional’s death
his aunt made for a living.
Sometimes, the boy traded the basket of bananas for buckets of water to deliver to housewives doing laundry, but nearly everyone in the neighborhood knew the boy and his voice.
Little did the neighbors and his family know that when they saw and heard the boy, whom they called Jek-jek, last Dec. 8, it would be the last time.
“Nahibaw-an pa nga last na to namo nga panag-istorya, maypa wala na lang ko ningtrabaho. Seguro, naa pa unta ko’y taas nga panahon kuyog niya (If I had known that that would be our last time together, I wouldn’t have gone to work. We could have had more time together),” Mary Ann, 37, told Sun.Star Cebu in an interview yesterday.
Her 13-year-old son, a Grade 7 student, lost consciousness that night in his classroom in the Inayawan National High School (previously the Inayawan Night High School).
After several attempts by school faculty and emergency staff to revive him, the boy was brought to the Cebu City Medical Center, where he was declared dead on arrival.
Trauma
One of his classmates, Earl (real name withheld), reenacted in school yesterday how Jek-Jek fell from the table he was perched on while taking a nap.
He said that the boy’s upper body suddenly twisted and he fell to the floor. The classmate was so shocked he couldn’t call for help, but one of their peers rushed to get their teacher.
The Nacionals, however, are looking at the possibility of foul play and believe that their son’s classmates may have been “briefed” what to say by their class adviser, Jemma Dumoran.
Mary Ann lamented that it would be impossible for her son to die from falling off a tabletop no more than two feet off the ground.
This came after Philippine National Police 7 medico-legal officer Benjamin Lara, who conducted the autopsy, said that Jek-Jek died from a “blunt traumatic injury to the head.”
“The doctor (Lara) told us that his death was caused by a blow to the nape, or his lower head. He said it wasn’t even because of the scratches on his upper head. Why would my son sustain such injury if he was sleeping on a very low table?” Mary Ann said in Cebuano.
Lawsuit
Although the autopsy report has yet to be released on Dec. 29, the family will be filing a case against the school before the National Bureau of Investigation 7 for showing “no sympathy and negligence.”
Jek-Jek’s father, Alquin, 37, said that since his son’s demise, the teachers showed no sign of sympathy nor support.
He lamented that he was disappointed with Dumoran for coming to the wake only once, when she was supposed to be his son’s “second parent” as class adviser.
“We will file a lawsuit to get the justice our son deserves. We were left in the cold. We’d appreciate a little sympathy. Dumoran said she can’t come to the wake as frequently because she has to send her niece or nephew to school in the morning, but that’s a flimsy excuse,” Alquin said in Cebuano.
Alquin said they will file the case as soon as they receive the autopsy report. Alquin is a laborer while Mary Ann sews mosquito nets for a living.
But the principal, Ma. Lourdes Jaca, maintained that the school’s officials and faculty are “not guilty” of any lapse.
They helped
She said they’ve provided the family with about P10,000 in cash assistance.
“We have not covered up anything and we even took money from out of our own pockets just to be able to help out with the expenses because we understand their situation,” Jaca said.
She said she understands the family’s grief.
Dumoran, on the other hand, denied ever asking the boy to hang the Christmas decor, saying he was too frail to do the job.
“I asked two other students who are bigger and taller, not him. I never asked him to do it. I was just as shocked as everyone else because I was preoccupied with making sure that those I tasked to hang the decors were safe,” she said.
Jek-Jek’s elder sister, Mary Alquin, said she not only lost a brother, but a best friend as well.
She said that their evening walks home, despite the heavy backpacks, were made bearable because she had her brother by her side.
“He always waited for me, feet swinging as he sat on the table near the principal’s office. That’s the same table he was laid flat on while people tried to revive him. He would have wanted to be a Math teacher,” she said, remembering the brother she won’t be celebrating Christmas with for the first time.