Girl’s abduction prompts review of school safety

Thursday, February 10, 2011

DEPARTMENT of Education (DepEd) 7 Director Recaredo Borgonia urged grade school teachers to always remind their pupils not to talk to strangers and to go home early, following the death of a grade one pupil in Minglanilla town.

“I am saddened by this happening,” he said in a phone interview yesterday. He said the agency will investigate the death of the pupil, whose body was found in Barili town.
Borgonia also urged parents to fetch their children from school to ensure they reach home safely.

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“Parents should also take extra effort in taking care of their children,” he said.

Grade one pupils are dismissed from class at 4 p.m., earlier than the older children.

He said school principals are given the discretion to put in place security measures in their schools.

At 3 p.m. yesterday, Calajo-an Elementary School principal Jenelyn Craste and a representative from the DepEd Cebu Provincial Schools Division met with Minglanilla Police Station Chief Laurel Almirante.

The school officials wanted to get an update on the investigation on the death of six-year-old pupil Ellah Joy Pique.

Pique, a Grade 1 pupil of Calajo-an Elementary School, was found dead at the bottom of a cliff along the national road in Barangay Sayaw, Barili past 7 a.m. yesterday.

Almirante said among the other concerns they talked about was the security of the school’s pupils. At present, the school has no security guard.

Almirante said he told Craste the Minglanilla Police Station does not have enough personnel that can be assigned to secure the school.

The most that the police can do, he said, is to regularly patrol the area.

He suggested that Craste ask for the assistance of barangay officials of Calajo-an to provide tanods as security personnel.

Cebu Provincial Police Office Director Erson Digal, in a separate interview, asked the school to impose a stricter security policy for their pupils.

Digal said school staff or security personnel should not allow the students to leave the premises until their guardians arrive to fetch them.

Parents, on the other hand, should also bring and pick up their children from school.