Coalition amending Safe Spaces Act launched

Safer Campuses Ph, a newly launched coalition of student organizations and councils across the country on Friday called for revisions to the Safe Spaces Act, or SSA, amidst the persistence of campus-based sexual harassment despite its ratification five years ago.

The launch coincides with International Women’s Day.

“We cannot wait for another victim before our legislators and education officials admit that they have failed to protect students,” said Sophie Reyes, lead convenor of Enough Is Enough, a convening member organization of the coalition.

Since the enactment of the SSA, the group has monitored at least 61 schools with campus “predators.” Many have remained employed in the schools or have transferred to different schools without facing administrative and criminal charges.

“It is distressing that instead of bringing about sweeping reforms in the education sector to stamp out campus predators and their enablers, the SSA has miserably failed to serve as a deterrent,” Reyes added.

Since the enactment of the SSA, the group has monitored at least 61 schools with campus ‘predators.’

“Now that officials are busy discussing the liberalization and foreign control of universities, gender justice seems to be farther than it was before the SSA,” she claimed.

This week’s hearings on the proposed charter change have focused on provisions concerning foreign ownership of the education sector.

The coalition joined women’s organizations and progressive groups for the Women’s Day program in Mendiola to protest against the proposed charter change.

Afterward, Safer Campuses Ph proceeded to the Professional Regulation Commission head office at Sampaloc, Manila, and personally delivered its position paper on the need to revoke professional licenses of campus predators and strip them of the authority to teach and work with students.

Safer Campuses Ph carries 5 major demands regarding amendments to the law 1) mandating schools to provide psychological, legal, and financial support for victim-survivors, 2) predators and enablers being charged with criminal and administrative cases, 3) revoking professional licenses and the blacklisting of campus predators, 4) establishing a publicly-available national registry of sex offenders, and 5) non-retaliatory policy to protect students from enabling school administrators.