De Lima on Ateneo bullying incident: Probe child’s ‘expert-level’ abuse

Sen. Leila de Lima (Photo from her Facebook page)

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Leila de Lima on Saturday raised her concern over the student involved in a bullying incident, saying the child’s form of abuse must be investigated.

“This isn’t schoolyard bullying, this sounds like expert-level sadism. He learned it from somewhere,” De Lima said in a dispatch from Camp Crame in Quezon City.

“And that’s the important thing to investigate: where or why is a child so young exposed to such level of abuse? Is there abuse in the family? In his circle of relatives? At school? Among his peers? From figures of authority?” she added.

The senator also said parents must be accountable to their child’s behavior which concerns a problem in the society.

“When the child’s behavior hurts another and exposes a problem that society would have to deal with, the parents become accountable to others and to society,” De Lima said. “They are human beings that parents have a responsibility to raise as well-adjusted and productive members of society. You can’t raise someone who does monstrous things and unleashes it into the world with impunity.”

De Lima said for bullying incidents involving children, the goal is to stop bullying and not shame or punish the bully.

“Any shame and punishment that an apparent “bully” might experience should be secondary to their understanding that what they did was wrong, and that they should never do it again. Punishment, especially, in this case, should be a means to an end: to end the cycle of bullying,” she said./lb