MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has reminded the public and the media to always protect the right to privacy and confidentiality of children.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, the CHR also published pertinent provisions of the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013, which mandates schools to adopt Anti-Bullying policies to address the existence of bullying in campus.
The CHR notice came in the wake of a recent bullying incident involving students of Ateneo Junior High School (AJHS).
“It is imperative that the right to privacy and confidentiality of all children involved must always be protected, not only by the school administrations, the parents, other parties concerned, the media, as well as users of social networks,” it stressed.
According to CHR, bullying is “not a simple issue” between parties involved. It pointed out that school officials must also intervene most specially if the incident happened inside school premises.
“Bullying is not a simple issue that only the child victim and his family have to face. Intervention of school officials, especially if the bullying incident transpire in the school premises, is needed to adequately address and if possible, to eliminate the same,” CHR said.
Schools, it added, “hold a vital role” to protect and educate its students against any forms of bullying.
If continuous education, support, and intervention would be made by school officials, bullying cases may be prevented among students, according to CHR.
“Being the primary institution mandated by the law to protect and educate the children in any forms of bullying, the school holds vital role to enforce the provisions of the said law,” it noted.
“Coming up with a definite and clear procedures and mechanisms on how to address the bullying will be of great help to all involved,” it added.
In a statement, Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) President Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin SJ said school officials have already met with parties involved in the viral video of the bullying incident as part of its “administrative investigation.”
READ: Ateneo officials meet with parties involved in bullying incident
He also said ADMU would not hesitate to expel or dismiss students who would be found guilty of grave misconduct
READ: Ateneo vows to kick out student if found guilty of bullying
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