School owners, administrators, teachers and other personnel are mandated to exercise “the required care, prudence, caution and foresight” to prevent injuries or deaths of students within the school premises during school hours.

Negligence and omissions on their part would make them liable for damages, the Malolos City regional trial court (RTC) in Bulacan said in its decision.

In the decision, RTC Judge Francisco P. Felizmenio ordered the Escuela De Santo Padre Pio in Marilao, Bulacan and class adviser Kemberly M. Cuanico to pay spouses Ramon B. Gatdula and Jacqueline P. Gatdula P1.47 million in moral, actual and exemplary damages, and lawyer’s fees for the death their 11-year-old son, Ramon Joshua, after falling from a tree inside the school campus on Jan. 29, 2018.

It was not known immediately if the school and Cuanico have filed a motion to reconsider the trial court’s decision or have elevated the case to a higher court.

After rejecting the school’s offer of P200,000 as settlement and after the school manifested it was not willing to meet the Gatdulas, the spouses filed a case against the school through their counsel Peter Paul Andrew T. Flores.

In the complaint, Mrs. Gatdula said that on Jan. 29, 2018, she received a call from Cuanico who informed her that Joshua fell from a tree. Mrs. Gatdula said she immediately called up her husband Ramon.

Since the school had no functional clinic, the couple said they learned that a barangay rescue team had to be called.  An ambulance was called to bring Joshua to the hospital, they said.

Mrs. Gatdula said she received another call that her son was brought to the Rogaciano Mercado General Hospital in Sta. Maria town for X-ray.

When she arrived at the school, Mrs. Gatdula said she was told by students where her son fell.  It was near a guava tree near the stairs of the school’s stage, she said.

She also said that only the students came to help her son immediately after falling from a tree.

At the same time, the couple said that they have reminded the teachers to keep a watchful eye on the children because they were playful and there were plenty of ongoing constructions inside the campus.

The complaint stated that the school failed to provide a safe environment for Joshua within the campus, and thus they were entitled to payment of damages “for gross and inexcusable negligence, failure to exercise due diligence, and wanton irresponsibility.”

They pointed out that they “lost Ramon Joshua, our only son, causing us to suffer tremendous sorrow and untold grief….”

In their answer with counter-claim for damages, the school said the death of Joshua was caused by an accident.  It said the proximate cause of death was that Joshua jumped to reach a branch of a guava tree which caused him to swing and lose balance.

It added that it exerted all efforts to bring Joshua to the hospital.

In resolving the case in favor of spouses Gatdula, the RTC said that based on the documents and testimonies presented, Cuanico allowed Joshua to go outside the classroom, only up to the corridor, to watch a volleyball game “notwithstanding the school’s policy to prohibit student from going out of the classroom until the arrival of their teachers.”

“To make matters worse, defendant Cuanico apparently did nothing when she noticed that Joshua was nowhere to be seen in the corridor,” the court said.

The court’s decision also stated:

“Furthermore, the court cannot help but notice the hazards looming around the school campus which are surprisingly accessible to students, such as the broken floor cement beneath and near the tree where Joshua fell and hit his head.

“In this connection, no warning signs such as ‘do not climb’ are visible at or at least near the tree where Joshua fell despite the broken floor cement which is indubitably posing a threat to the life and limbs of the students.

“It is also apparent that the school lacks a functioning medical clinic  which is supposed to address the health and medical concerns of students.

“It bears stressing that institutions of learning must also meet the implicit or ‘built-in’ obligation of providing their students with an atmosphere that promotes or assists in attaining its primary undertaking of imparting knowledge.

“From all the foregoing, it is very clear that defendant Cuanico and the school’s negligence has a direct causal relation to the death of Joshua, to wit: the authority given by defendant Cuanico to Joshua to go outside the classroom up to the corridor albeit prohibited; the inaction of defendant Cuanico when she found out that Joshua was nowhere to be found in the corridor; lack of supervising teachers/personnel monitoring the area where the incident happened; and safety hazards existing within the school premises.”