FEAR of reprisals from a group of senior students stopped Zara Qairina Mahathir from allowing her mother to intervene over repeated complaints about problems at her school hostel, the inquest into her death heard today.
Her mother, Noraidah Lamat, 46, the 81st witness in the inquest, said Zara Qairina had objected to her proposal for a meeting with the hostel warden, security guard and senior students concerned to clarify the issues.
“My daughter stopped me. She said something like, ‘Please don’t do it, Mum. They might treat me even worse. They have a gang, a big gang, in the hostel,’” she told Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan.
Noraidah was responding to questions from lawyer Joan Goh, who represents one of the teenagers accused in the bullying case, about how she had responded to her daughter’s complaints concerning senior students.
Asked why she had not approached the school principal or hostel warden, Noraidah said she had continued to trust the school administration despite her daughter’s reluctance to let her intervene.
“I still trusted the school administration because it is a renowned school in Sabah... a religious school,” she said.
Joan noted that Zara Qairina’s complaints about problems with senior students were not isolated incidents, a point Noraidah agreed with.
However, Noraidah said she had never imagined that a serious bullying incident resulting in her daughter’s death could happen at the school.
Zara Qairina died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on July 17, 2025, a day after she was found unconscious near a drain at her school dormitory in the early hours of the morning. - October 9, 2026
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