DepEd starts probe into school killing

THE Department of Education (DepEd) in Davao Region launched an independent investigation into the fatal stabbing of a high school student inside Kapitan Tomas Monteverde Sr. Central Elementary School Tuesday morning.

DepEd regional spokesperson Jenielito Atillo said they have started collating data to determine if there were lapses committed that led to the death of Alvin Ederosas, 16, a second year student of Davao City National High School.

"SOP (standard operating procedure) na siya para makita unsay lapses ug unsay mga action na dapat iimplement diha kabahin sa tulunghaan mismo ug ang manguna ana na office is the immediate office," Atillo said.

The stabbing incident happened around 10:30 a.m. when the victim went inside the school. The suspect is a 14-year-old Grade 6 pupil.

DAVAO. No amount of explaining by these boys could budge Reynaldo Cañete, the school guard, to allow them to go out of the premises of Kapitan Tomas Monteverde Sr. Elementary School where ingress and egress of children has been tightened following the killing of a child last Tuesday. (King Rodriguez)

Atillo said the incident was an isolated case but that the incident pushed the department to realize two things: to relook, revisit and restudy the kind of security measures that are implemented in schools and to request the parents to monitor what their children are doing from one place to another.

"Sa kadaghan-daghan sa mga bata ang importante karon is to really hammer a much stricter policy together with the parents and students para malikayan na nato nga mahitabo pa ni usab," he said.

Atillo said parents should look into all the activities of their children especially in the community where a lot of influences could affect the growth and development of a child.

"They are susceptible to things, either negative or positive. We worry so much on the negative ones so what I am trying to say is this is not only an issue sa kanang gitawag nga security inside the schools," Atillo said.

"But, this is an issue involving a much wider scenario nga kinahanglan tan-awon kung unsa ba gyud ang bata sulod ug gawas sa panimalay," he added.

The school, through its Principal Merlinda D. Amistoso, had requested for additional guards since last December 18, and still awaiting response until the incident, according to Atillo.

In a radio interview, Amistoso said she is crafting a letter addressed to Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio requesting to deploy additional security guards in their school.

She said the school has two guards, a local school board (LSB) guard for daytime shift, while another guard hired by the school is assigned in the evening.

"Dili pud nato siya mabasol kay isa lang man pud na siya (We can’t blame the guard because he is all alone)," Amistoso said, referring to the daytime guard-on-duty.

She also said she is asking the San Pedro police for police visibility in the area.

"Naa man na sila mabuntag but then gusto kay continuous ba hantod sa hapon, so additional pud continuous police visibility pud sa among eskwelahan (There are policemen during the start of classes, but we would have preferred that policemen are deployed until afternoon)," Amistoso said.

She said they prohibit parents and guardians from entering the campus, although this is not being followed strictly.

"Ang problema namo ani ang mga outsider, naga gawas-sulod kay dili man na kaya sa among security (Our problem is the entry of outsiders which cannot be controlled by our guard)," Amistoso said.

Atillo said DepEd Davao City is going to conduct a psycho-social intervention among the students for what happened.

"We do psycho-social intervention or PSI dili lang bahin sa nahitabo but also kabahin pud sa mga kabataan sa Kapitan Tomas (not just for what happened but also with regards the children of Kapitan Tomas). I am sure (DepEd school division superintendent Helen) Paguican, through personnel, will look into the action of providing PSI sa kabataan ug probably didto sa ginikanan (for the children and maybe their parents)," Atillo said.

"We hope we can help the students kay dako gyud ug epekto no, kining panghitabo (because this incident has a grave effect on the children). We pray for the peace of mind for all concerns specifically sa parents atong bata," he said.