‘Poisoning’ dampens PSHS graduation

The loudest applause during the graduation rites at the Philippine Science High School in Quezon City last Friday was for a girl who nearly didn’t make it to the ceremonies.

From Feb. 14 to March 23, the girl had undergone dialysis treatment at a government hospital in Quezon City after swallowing water laced with a toxic substance.

The incident, described in a criminal complaint as frustrated homicide, has cast a shadow over the school’s class of 2006, and raised questions on whether it was due to plain teenage mischief or was triggered by pressure to excel in the country’s premier state-run high school.

Witnesses have identified a classmate as responsible for lacing a jug of water with the substance, which was identified through laboratory tests as mercury nitrate.

Before the incident, a few other students also had become sick after drinking small amounts of water from their own jugs, which were also allegedly laced with the substance by the same student.

The suspect was still allowed to attend classes the day after the girl was poisoned. This was because the principal witnesses were initially reluctant to come forward and identify a friend as the culprit.

An impassioned appeal from school authorities finally persuaded the witnesses to come forward a few days after the incident.

The school then barred the boy, one of the brightest in his batch, from graduating.

"We didn’t allow him to graduate," PSHS officer-in-charge Jessamyn Jozon told The STAR.

Police said the boy’s parents have appealed the school’s decision to the Department of Science and Technology, which has jurisdiction over the PSHS.

Senior Superintendent Benjamin de los Santos, investigation chief of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), has recommended to the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office the indictment of the boy on charges of frustrated homicide.

Of thousands who apply each year from all over the country for entry into the PSHS, located on Agham Road in Quezon City, only a tiny fraction are accepted. The size of this year’s graduating class is only a little over 200. Each student gets full scholarship and a monthly stipend ranging from P500 to P2,500, depending on need, from the government.

In written statements submitted to the police, the boy’s classmates said they saw him pull out a small bottle from his school bag and pour a colorless substance into a jug of water at the school lobby at around 1:50 p.m. last Feb. 14.

He reportedly asked another boy, in the presence of the witnesses, to put the substance into the jug. Witnesses said the second boy opened the cap of the water jug.

SPO1 Joselito Coronel of the CIDG said the suspect has denied the witnesses’ story.

Some members of the graduating class have speculated that the boy had been under pressure to follow in the footsteps of an older sibling, a PSHS alumnus who won a scholarship to one of the most prestigious schools in the United States.

Mercury nitrate is a highly toxic colorless or white soluble crystalline compound of mercury. It was once used to treat fur for making felt and is still used occasionally to determine chlorides in the blood.

It is quickly absorbed through the skin and can cause burns. Whether inhaled, ingested or absorbed through the skin, mercury nitrate can be fatal. It is also considered a neurological toxin.