We received this e-mail a student who wishes to remain anonymous.

From: [name withheld]
Reply-To:
To: info@ismstakeholders.com
Date: 06 Sep 2006, 01:53:57 PM
Subject: Name to be witheld, please

To the ISM Community,

I'm very concerned about everything going on in this school since Monday. Prior to this week I believed the state of our school community to be fairly stable because I was not yet informed of the current events going on. However, most of us students began to take interest in our school's political system since this Monday when Mr. Toze was "forcibly thrown out of the school under guards similar to a criminal" (Source: The Philippine Star). Our teachers said he was fired, and Monday was also the only time when I also heard about the resignation of two Board members that happened a few days ago. Along with this news came several other rumours regarding his children being pulled out of school, his car being taken from him and the like, as well as whispers about teachers resigning from the school. I have not heard any confirmation regarding these rumours, but the students' ignorance of the facts concerning our school's situation mean a lack of communication, but as a very concerned student, I am praying to know the truth.

I have also been hearing various speculations regarding the Board of Trustees at ISM and have read e-mail after e-mail and any article that I could find related to the current events going on at our school. I am constantly visiting ISMstakeholders.com for any updates and feel torn. I happen to be a close friend of the son of one of the current members of the Board and I am being fed information which I am not sure about. He mentions things that I believe are true and call them false and vise versa. Of course, gossip will not do anything for the better of our school, so why not just give us the whole truth?

As of now, my opinions will remain neutral until the Board of Trustees finally speaks. I am extremely annoyed at people who post on their own personal blog sites saying how the students aren't at all going to be affected by this situation because as far as this whole situation is concerned, we are definitely involved. How some students and parents remain apathetic about the conflict going on in school is almost disgusting. The teachers went "on strike" or something like that today. Most parents are signing a petition for something even I'm not so sure of. As far as I heard, it was to make our current Board step down from their respective positions. Everything is so close to chaos, so why not care? We are studying in one of the most prestigious schools in the Philippines. Why just sit there and watch the school's foundation simply collapse? ISM is the only school I have learned to love in this way and all this foolishness and lack of communication is only destructive to all the positive values I've embraced in the years I have studied in this school.

By the hour we are fed with new information, whether fact or gossip. We, the students, have the right to be informed of the truth.

ISM Student, Class of 2011.