Stop corporal punishment, Lim tells Manila teachers

Manila Mayor Alfredo S. Lim warned teachers from public schools in the city to refrain from inflicting harm or employing corporal punishment on their students.

Lim’s pronouncement came after the parents of at least 23 students from the Almario Elementary School in Tondo trooped to the office of Manila Department of Social Welfare chief Jay Dela Fuente to seek help regarding alleged abuses committed by a school teacher against their children.

After getting the statements of the children, Dela Fuente brought them to the mayor who summoned division of city schools superintendent Dr. Ponciano Menguito and assistant superintendent Cristina Reyes so they could personally listen to the complaints of the concerned children and parents.

Lim also directed Menguito and Reyes to act swiftly on the matter, noting the gravity of the complaints as stated by Dela Fuente in his report.

According to Dela Fuente, the students alleged that a teacher had been subjecting them to various forms of maltreatment including physical abuses inside the classroom.

These abuses, the students said, include the following: use of her shoes or blackboard eraser in slapping their faces; hair- pulling;  throwing empty five gallon mineral water bottles at them; hitting their mouths with a ruler and striking their palms with a broomstick.

Dela Fuente said the students further alleged that at times, students were not allowed to go out and relieve themselves that at some point, one student urinated in his pants.

The said teacher also allegedly threatened the students that she would fail them should they report such incidents to their parents.

The parents told Lim that they have brought the matter to the attention of school principal Erlinda Valdez but there has been no action taken, prompting them to go directly to the mayor’s office, through the MDSW.

Lim, for his part, ordered a thorough investigation into the matter, with a directive for appropriate action to be taken, depending on the outcome.

The mayor took the opportunity to call on all teachers to treat their students as their own children, since the school is considered by parents as their kids’ second home.

Should students err, Lim said the teachers should call the attention of the parents instead of subjecting the student concerned to maltreatment. (Ric M. de Guzman)

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