School ready to counsel student in sex video
THE female college student who was exposed in a sex video that went viral on the Internet has stopped attending classes.
Officials of a Cebu City university where she is enrolled said they are trying to locate her and are ready to provide counselling support.
“This was a private act, only that there was irresponsible use of the medium that allowed the video to spread,” said a school official, who asked to remain unnamed.
He appealed to voyeurs to stop circulating the video.
“Please do not spread it anymore. Please help the girl,” he said.
The official said the student was not expelled and that she stopped going to class after the scandal broke in January. She was described as a dean’s lister and a sponsored scholar.
The official said they wanted to find out if the student would file a complaint over the unauthorized exposure but that she apparently left Cebu for another province.
He said the incident was an “isolated case” and “does not speak of the character of the university.”
The video was believed taken two years ago and showed the female student engaged in sex with a male friend in scenes recorded on a mobile phone.
The girl was dressed in her school uniform, wearing her school ID.
When a copy of the video was recently uploaded in a Facebook page of alumni members, it caused an uproar, with images quickly spreading in several Internet sites and passed to other mobile phones through Bluetooth.
The school official told CDN the young man was not a student of the school and they had no control over him. According to one account, the man’s mobile phone was stolen and the video leaked to other parties.
Other students of the private university are suffering the fallout of the scandal amid reports that some coeds, wearing their school uniform, were being heckled on the street by strangers.
The official said the university plans to hold a spiritual recollection for students to reinforce religious values and give students the opportunity to go to confession.
He said the school is also preparing a statement to be issued to faculty members to guide discussions with students about the scandal, and to assure that this was an “isolated” incident that doesn’t reflect on the school’s character.
Under school policy, posting indecent photos on the Internet is punishable by “exclusion”, which means an erring student would not be allowed to continue his or her studies in the university.
The school is ready to offer psychiatric counselling to the girl. “She may have traumatic past. Maybe there was something deep inside in her that made her act that way,” the official said.
He said when officials discovered the video days before the Sinulog celebration, they checked the record and found out that the student was no longer attending classes.
Those who uploaded the video could be held liable for violating the Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009 (RA9995) and Anti-Violence Against Women and the Children Act of 2004 (RA 9262, said police officials The penalty is 3 to 7 years in jail and a fine of P100,000 to P500,000.
The law prohibits copying or reproducing photos or videos of the sexual act, selling and distributing, publishing or broadcasting in print or broadcast media of video coverage or recordings of sexual act through Internet, cellular phones or other devices. /Christine Emily L. Pantaleon, Correspondent
