The Culture and Education and Ministry has sent a team to investigate the death of Amelia Nasution, a 12th-grader at a vocational school in Padang Sidempuan, North Sumatra, who committed suicide after exposing alleged exam malpractices at her school.

The student reportedly drank poison after she was threatened by a teacher who had allegedly leaked answer keys to the national exams to some final-year students at the school.

Daryanto, the ministry’s inspector general, said the team would investigate the case and punish any perpetrators.

“If it is proven that [a teacher] threatened Amelia and caused her death, there will be sanctions against them,” he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Amelia and two of her friends took to Facebook after discovering that there appeared to have been a leak of the exam materials at the school. They alleged that the leak came from a fellow student who was also the daughter of one of the teachers.

The student’s mother later threatened the three students, saying that they would be jailed and fined Rp 750 million (US$56,460) for exposing the cheating at the school. (wit)