Public school teacher faces probe

THE Commission on Human Rights (CHR) 7 is investigating a high school teacher in Mandaue City who allegedly forced her stu

dents to swallow scraps of paper.

Primo Cadampog, CHR 7 supervising investigator, went to the Paknaan National High School yesterday to talk with fourth year high school students who were allegedly made to chew scraps of paper by their Math teacher last Sept. 5.

Principal Josephine Babatuan, in an interview with GMA 7, said some of the parents complained about the incident last Sept. 10.

Babatuan said the Department of Education (DepEd) Mandaue City Division will investigate the complaint.

‘Repeat offender’

According to the GMA 7 report, the teacher asked her 30 students to swallow scraps of paper within 10 minutes as punishment for their rowdiness.

Some of the students swallowed the paper.

Cadampog said the CHR 7 will get statements from other students.

The parents said the teacher did the same thing to their children last year.

Babatuan said the teacher is on sick leave. In a statement submitted to the principal, the teacher admitted that she asked her students to swallow the paper. She apologized.

Babatuan said the teacher was transferred to another class while the investigation is ongoing.

Possible raps

Under a DepEd order issued in 1992, school officials and teachers have the right to impose appropriate and reasonable disciplinary measures. But it does not permit the use of cruel and physically harmful punishment against any pupil or student.

School officials or teachers who violate the policy could face not just an administrative charge but also a criminal case.

Republic Act 7610, or the Anti-Corporal Punishment Law of 2007, provides punishment to any parent, guardian or teacher who subjects a child to corporal punishment, whether verbal, physical, mental or psychological.