JEDDAH, 14 October — Nothing's wrong at the International Philippine School in Jeddah (IPSJ) and reports of trouble are falsehoods, according to the chairman of the school's Board of Trustees (BOT).
In a telephone interview yesterday, Efren Rodriguez said the BOT remains in power despite the action taken by parents, declaring the Board abolished.
Rodriguez said such action has no effect since it was "illegal."
"What Fidel (Hernandez) did was completely out of established procedure. There's a process to elect and only the (Saudi) Ministry of Education has the authority to supervise and schedule the election," he said.
Hernandez is the president of the school's Parent-Teachers Council (PTC), which convened Friday's assembly in front of the IPSJ campus in Jeddah's Ghornatah district.
The parents had said their only intention was to meet at the school gymnasium but because they were prevented by the BOT from entering, they were compelled to assemble on the street in front of the school gate.
While they were lined up in front of the school police arrived and questioned them, some of the PTC officers told Arab News.
They said the head of the police team disclosed to them that they were responding to a telephone call that the parents were causing trouble.
When the parents explained their purpose, the police team sought out Rodriguez, who was living nearby, and took him to the police station to explain.
The parents subsequently charged Rodriguez and the entire Board with, among others, misappropriation of school funds and mismanagement, according to Hernandez and other parents.
Rodriguez said he himself had asked the MOE to take action over the "illegal" action of the parents.
"We are still waiting for the MOE's decision," he said yesterday.
In the interview, Rodriguez bristled at the use in the Arab News report of the words "messy" and "troubled" to describe the state of IPSJ. He complained that negative reports about the school could discourage other parents from bringing their children in.
He further said it was not accurate to say the IPSJ Board "threatened" the parents council against holding the assembly.
"We only reminded them that the assembly they were calling was illegal because under the laws of the host country, we should first secure permission from the MOE," he said.
A threat is a threat
Asked for his comment, Hernandez, the PTC president, said it was clear from Rodriguez's letter that he was threatening parents and the PTC members.
"He (Rodriguez) had also been telling some parents that we (PTC leaders) would be jailed for calling the assembly. Look who ended up being summoned to the precinct?" Hernandez said.
He claimed that a mutawwa who was with the police team apparently got tired of hearing the MOE being name-dropped that he told Rodriguez point blank: "Who are you to decide what is illegal?"
As for the words "messy" and "troubled," Hernandez said the Board "just could not accept what a mess and trouble they have been causing" in the school.
He said they did not see the exposure by media of the school's problems as a destructive exercise. "In fact it will have a cleansing effect because the parents will know that at IPSJ, they have a say on how the school should be run," he said.
Instead of blaming media for doing its job of reporting what's going on, Hernandez said, Rodriguez should explain his "misleading statements."
He said when police on Friday asked the school guards why they refused to let the parents in, the guards showed a memorandum from the Board saying the parents involved were being barred because they were delinquent in paying their children's tuition.
"We have submitted evidence to the police showing that we are up-to-date in our obligations. We also gave them proof that some of the Board members are the ones who have been accumulating debts from the school," he said.
"We wish the Ministry of Education will also seriously look into our complaint so that they will find out what their representatives in IPSJ are doing," Hernandez added.
Rodriguez and Hernandez at least were in agreement on two points: Both were confident that they are on the right side and that the groups they represented were "solid and intact."
