Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Z. Duterte had already met with the department’s Child Protection Unit to enhance programs for the safety and protection of students following the reported harassment of learners by seven teachers of the Bacoor National High School’s Molino main campus in Cavite.
DepEd spokesperson Atty. Michael Tan Poa also said that a fact-finding report of the case would be submitted today, Friday.
“The Vice President already had a meeting with the DepEd Child Protection Unit. There were major directions given to the unit to strengthen their programs at the division office and regional office level,” Poa said, adding Duterte really wanted to resolve such problems in schools.
Poa said that it was earlier reported that six teachers did the alleged sexual advances.
“The investigation, not only of six, but seven teachers identified through social media posts is continuing. By tomorrow, the fact-finding report will be submitted to the regional office and from then on, we will determine the administrative proceedings against the said teachers,” Poa said in a news briefing.
The teachers were also placed on “floating status” and were not given teaching load while the probe is ongoing, it was learned.
A Twitter user who uses the name @eexpresso shared the alleged sexual advances made by the teachers against the students.
The thread was originally posted on Facebook but was deleted for allegedly violating community standards.
On the said Twitter thread, one of the teachers even posted photos of his students on his social media accounts while making sexual innuendos.
While the investigation is proceeding, Poa appealed to those who experienced sexual advances or abuse at the hands of the teachers to come out and file their complaints to boost the case against them.
As to what penalty can be imposed against the teachers if they are found guilty in the administrative proceeding, Poa said the “most severe punishment” is dismissal from the service.
This, he added, does not preclude the lodging of criminal cases against the teachers by the victims.
“Kami kasi sa DepEd ay more on the administrative side,” he explained.
Image credits: Patrick Roque/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA-4.0