A “naughty” act proved to be their undoing. Despite repeated pleas of parents to school administrators, six students of Infant Jesus Academy in Marikina City were delisted from the roster of high school graduates and did not receive their diplomas during graduation rites Friday.
The school penalized the six seniors who reportedly uploaded Facebook photos of themselves kissing each other.
A mother of one of the six boys said the students were allowed to join the graduation rites but their names would not be called to receive their diplomas.
In a letter dated March 27, school chancellor Peter Mallonga told the parents that what the six students did – uploading photos which showed the boys kissing each other – was a “violation of school rules.”
“They said our children can join the march, prayers, and the entire ceremony, except that they cannot go up the stage. But that is the most awaited moment for them,” the mother told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The parents were also told that the school would be withholding the diplomas of their children. The students, however, could still enroll in schools of their choice.
One of the students said they didn’t deserve the punishment. “We worked for this for four years, and it was put to waste because of a little mistake we made,” he said.
The six claimed the photos uploaded on the popular social networking site Facebook showing them kissing while in their school uniforms were “fake and a product of a camera trick.”
The Inquirer tried but failed to reach the school officials through the landline number posted on their website.
Rizalino Rosales, assistant director of the Department of Education-National Capital Region, said the matter of student discipline was the school administration’s prerogative.
“But before the imposition of penalties, basic requirements of due process must be met,” he said.
He added that they have yet to study the case, and it would be too late to compel the school administration to reverse its decision.
In Cebu City, two high school girls were barred by St. Theresa’s College from attending the graduation rites recently after they posted Facebook photos of themselves wearing bikinis.
The Cebu regional trial court, however, reprimanded the school for the harsh punishment and ordered it to allow the girls to receive their diplomas.