Ministry rules out infrastructural breach in death of boarding school student

SANTIAGO.- The Minister of Education, Mónica Jiménez, denied today that the death of 16 year-old student with initials C.D.D. at the Internado Nacional Barros Arana (INBA) school was caused by an infrastructural problem at the establishment and indicated that there was no third party involved in the tragedy.

Minister Jiménez offered condolences to the family of the boy and added that during her visit to the school she had gone to "the site where he was found dead and all evidence indicates it was an accident".

Jiménez added that classmates of the boy are being treated by a psychiatrist, while she has also asked the Universidad de Chile to send experts in adolescent psychiatry to the educational establishment.

The boy who died belonged to a Municipality of Santiago program called Centenario which, according to the minister, has a capacity to offer 400 scholarships to students from outside Santiago with excellent academic achievement, though only 200 are currently being used.

Meanwhile, the director of the school, Juan Yáñez, stated that the boy had achieved excellent grades and said that he was a normal student with a slightly shy personality.

The director added that the incident took place at 9:45 pm last night and indicated that the students are allowed to be up until 10:00 pm, which is why it is not strange that the boy was outside of his room at that time.