Slapped Shock

My head suddenly turned upon hearing on the news, of a school with Penafrancia on its name. I was thinking, that must be in Naga or in Bicol. There’s Penafrancia Resort. There’s Penafrancia Tours. What else is there? But I somehow breathed a sigh of relief upon further hearing that it’s somewhere in antipolo City. Okay, I knew there isn’t a school with a name like that around here.

As news has it, a Grade 5 student died due to complications allegedly caused by his teacher who slaped him after pulling his collar and his hair. That is some nasty instructional interaction. According to the victim’s accounts relayed by his mother, after the incident, her son experienced deafness on one ear, dizziness, headaches and vomiting. After some days, the student was reportedly brought to the hospital where he fell into a coma and later, sadly died. The mother further relayed that brain scans and x-ray scan showed bleeding on her son’s brain. (https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/10/03/2300922/)) What the…? If the teacher’s slap did cause all that, is her palm made of some sort of concrete or metal to hit that damaging impact? She must have swung that arm like a fraternity master would paddle the butt of a neophyte. She must have had a lot of practice and workout to have developed that strong swing. If she really did that, the Philippine Olympic Committee may want to consider recruiting her for some sports events. In what sport could that swing and slap be useful? Maybe she could use that in volleyball, shotput, discus throw or javelin throw. If ever anyone else has that strong swing, please don’t use that on another human being.

Of course, DepEd administrators and the police have executed their investigations and the teacher in question has been placed on indefinite leave. I was waiting for the news report to show a soundbyte from the teacher and hear her side of the story, like how that screening officer allegedly claimed that supposedly three hundred dollar bill she swallowed was actually chocolate. The police conveyed that in their interviews with the suspect, she claimed that the hit was not that hard. Although the incident and its gravity was reportedly confirmed by at least two classmates who were present then and there. Deducing the timeline of events, the incident apparently occurred towards the end of last month, some days after the Feast of Penafrancia, after which the school is named. That is an interesting way to celebrate the supposed patron of the school.

If this case goes to trial, I think the defense would try to weaken the causal relationship of the brain bleeding to the slap. The teacher’s attorney may find a way to cast doubt and direct other events as the cause of the student’s experience of dizziness to death. However, regardless of the actual cause of death, it has been already established that the teacher did lay her heavy hand on the child. Well, the teacher may downplay how hard the hit was. But apparently she admits to doing it. What is interesting is that the student who fell victim to the swinging slap was not actually misbehaving in class. According to reports, it seemed that he was telling the teacher that some of his classmates were being noisy, and for some reason, the teacher turned her emotions and her manual motions at him. The kid apparently wasn’t doing anything wrong.

By the way, hours before I heard of this news, I heard of a teacher just around the corner who was in a similar situation. No, he did not slap a student. Buzz has it that he would spit curse words in class to pupils. Allegedly, he at one time or more, threw a pupil’s notebooks in front of the class. Allegedly again, there was a time that the teacher tore the whole page of the pupil’s formal theme composition, maybe because he did not like the penmanship or maybe he did not like the child’s literary style. I tried to get a few more details from my informant, but it seems that’s as far as I could get, although I managed to get some clues. I heard that the parents of the abused child have risen to take the matter to the school head for the issue to be dealt with. That’s interesting. What’s happening in one part of the country is also happening locally. Could it be the same sort of injustice is also happening in other parts of the country? Poor children. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sen. Raffy Tulfo comes along to their aid.

Happy Teachers’ Day.

Luke 6:40: “The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their…”