■ TEACHER ACCUSED OF MALTREATMENT ‘HAD NO INTENTION TO HURT PUPIL’

The teacher of Adlaon Integrated School in Cebu City who was accused of maltreatment had no intention to inflict pain or injury to her students, initial investigation of the Department of Education (DepEd) Cebu City Division showed. In an interview, Dr. Bianito Dagatan, DepEd Cebu City Schools Division Superintendent said that their division committee visited the school yesterday to validate the complaint of a mother, whose child was allegedly tied to the chair. Dagatan said the parents of the child and the teacher met yesterday at the school and discussed what really happened. “Based on what our personnel who went to the school relayed to me, the yarn was not really tied to the students but to the chairs, the four chairs were tied to each other that formed a square, to restrict the kids from moving around inside the classroom,” he said. But even if the teacher has no intention to tie the students, Dagatan said the former is still not allowed to restrict or prevent a child from moving around. “The parents have no intention to file a complaint, one parent just posted the incident on Facebook, that’s why we validated it. For the record, DepEd did not receive any complaint from both parents about it,” Dagatan said. But even if there is no complaint, Dagatan said the report on the incident will be submitted still to their regional office and it will be up to the regional director to impose disciplinary action to the teacher. /