Teacher accused of ‘maltreating’ pupil

MAGALANG, Pampanga -- The father of a Grade 6 pupil wants school authorities to impose sanctions on a mathematics teacher of San Francisco Elementary School for allegedly maltreating his son.

Alvin Mangilit, the parent of 12-year-old “Jaypee” (not his real name), said the teacher, Soledad Dayrit-Cortez, on three occasions asked his son to stay out of the classroom while his classmates were busy with their lessons. The child, he said, was also ordered to clean the toilet and then let him stand under the scorching heat of the mid-afternoon sun for an hour.

Mangilit told Sun.Star Pampanga last Tuesday that his son was reportedly talking in class that made the teacher punished the child. His son has gotten dark and has a fever during the night. His son doesn’t want to go to school already because of the maltreatment of his teacher.

“Jaypee”, he said, did not tell him about the incident, but it was his sister, a 4th grader of the same school, who reported about it when she chanced upon the former standing under the sun near the door of the classroom on Friday.

Mangilit said he has brought the matter before the school principal, Arles Cruz, who vowed to take action on their complaint.

But Cruz, in a separate interview with Sun.Star Pampanga Wednesday, denied not taking action on the complaint and concern of Mangilit.

Dayrit-Cortez was unavailable for comments as she was still in another class.

“I have talked to the teacher and thoroughly investigated the incident which happened only once and not thrice as they claim. The boy was never asked to clean the toilet but just to wipe the plant ledge dahil binali niya iyung mga halaman doon while he was standing near the door of the classroom. After a few minutes, pinapasok na siya sa classroom at hindi ibinilad. Hindi rin dumapo ang kamay ng teacher sa kanya. Pumapasok ang bata and he was never absent from class,” Cruz narrated.

Cruz furthered: “Hindi lang kami nakapag-dialogue noong Sabado na gusto ni Mr. Mangilit because I was in a seminar then. But we had talked initially when he came here with barangay officials. Nonetheless, we have scheduled a meeting with them this coming Monday to settle the complaint.”

He also said that he had to follow the proper procedure on handling the complaint: “Hindi naman po ganoon kabilis tanggalin ang teacher. We have to document everything. Ito nga po ng si Ms. Dayrit gustong idimanda na si Mr. Mangilit dahil sa paninirang puri. Kalat na sa buong barangay ang nangyari. Kaya nga lang po, ang sabi ko sa kanila ay i-settle natin amicably dahil magkababaryo naman kami.” (Jovi T. De Leon)