Head of School Message: Heartbreaking news about student Masaki Tamanuki

Dear Faculty & Staff,

I have some heartbreaking news which I need to share with you today. One of our rising grade 11 students, Masaki Tamanuki, died early Saturday morning. We have spoken with his family, and they have shared the following information: “Masaki ended his life in an unfortunate incident. He loved his school, teachers, and friends.” Masaki’s family has asked us to respect the family’s privacy for their son, his sister Misato (rising to grade 8), his sister Yuri (SSIS graduate 2017), and their family. They will be holding a private funeral for the family only. Please do not contact the family at this time.

This information will be shared with our parent community at 5:00 pm today and with students in grades 8 to the graduating class of 2020 at 7:00 pm tonight.

The death of any member of our community is a difficult thing. We will each process this in our own way. We will have counseling support on-site for faculty from 5:00 – 6:00 pm tonight in the HS counseling office.

The HS counseling office will be open all week from 8:00 am – 4:30 pm for students and faculty who wish to talk to a counselor. We will have additional staff here for the community to help in dealing with our loss. Tony Louw will be here Monday and Tuesday and then available by appointment all week.

If you need counseling support outside of the school hours, please contact:

David Carpenter 0938314301

Jacob Humes 0779048308

Julia Bui 0932760684

Tony Louw (Learning Strategies Ltd.) 0915729230 or tony.louw@learning-strategies.org

All Summer School teachers are required to attend a meeting in the MPR tomorrow, Monday, July 6, for additional guidance in supporting our students during summer school.

7:00 am – 7:30 am All Summer School Teacher

7:30 am – 8:15 am High School Summer School Teachers meet with Tony Louw

Again, please join me in offering our condolences as well as thoughts and prayers to Masaki’s family at this difficult time.

All good wishes,
Catriona