The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has condemned the reported child abuse and corporal punishment allegedly inflicted by the teacher of two elementary students in Tinglayan, Kalingain.
The CHR, through its regional office in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CHR-CAR), said it has been monitoring the investigation being conducted by the Department of Education (DepEd).
It said a viral video circulated last Sept. 6 showed a few students in front row of a classroom trying to solve mathematical problems. When two students struggled with the exercise, their frustrated teacher went behind them and hit their backs and pinched their ears.
It noted that the incident was actually recorded in April 2022 in a school in Tinglayan, Kalinga. The two students seen in the video were then in Grade 5 but are now in Grade 6. It was only in August 2022 that the video was uploaded, and it became viral the following month.
In a statement, the CHR stressed that teachers should implement "positive and non-violent discipline of children."
"Abuse of and violence against children learners should stop and never be tolerated as forms of teaching and discipline in schools," said lawyer Romel Daguimo, regional director of CHR-CAR.
DepEd in Kalinga had issued a statement and stressed that it "does not tolerate any form of abuse toward children." Similarly, DepEd Kalinga conducted an investigation on the incident following an order from their CAR regional office.
It then warned teachers and non-teaching personnel against words and actions that undermine the highest ethical and professional standards.
"We urge DepEd to continue to perform its constitutional duty to inculcate love of humanity, respect for human rights, teach the rights and duties of citizenship, strengthen ethical and spiritual values, develop moral character and personal discipline, encourage critical and creative thinking, broaden scientific and technological knowledge, and promote vocational efficiency," the CHR-CAR said.