Why defy the court?

New wounds were opened when the campus gate of St. Theresa’s College remained closed yesterday for five high school students.

The graduating seniors came with their parents and the confidence of a Temporary Restraining Order issued by a judge directing the school to let two of the girls participate in the 3 p.m. commencement exercise.

Not even the court sheriff, who approached the gate pleading to talk to the principal or anyone in charge, could persuade guards at the gate to let them in before the ceremony started.

With no “passes” for admission issued to them by the school administration, none of them, especially not the pack of news reporters and camera men waiting at the entrance, were allowed to to enter.

The unexpected act of defiance of the private Catholic school has complicated the week-old controversy.

Now, it’s not just the outraged families of the girls that the school has to contend with, but Judge Wildredo Navarro himself, who is sure to demand to know why his court order is being ignored.

A case of indirect contempt of court will add to the slew of issues a new element of disrespect for a valid order of the court.

In the minds of ordinary folk, it comes down to this: Who is above the law?

The episode will also heighten the perception that due process—a fair opportunity to answer and defend oneself against an accusation—which the girls’ families complain was not observed when the STC principal handed down a March 1 penalty of barring five girls from the March 30 graduation rites for violating Student Handbook rules on proper conduct, is not really valued.

The closed gate reflected an unwillingness to listen.

If a judge’s plainly written March 28 order is not heeded, what recourse do aggrieved families have in a community that is supposed to follow the rule of law?

Whatever happens now, the resolution of legal issues in hearings ahead will carry the bitter sting of a missed opportunity.

Graduation ceremonies carry huge sentimental and psychological weight in Filipino families. The honor—or dishonor of a student—is visited on the family many times-fold.

The special day has come and gone.

It would have been a win-win arrangement—for the families, the satisfaction of letting their daughters join their peers in marching up the stage for their diplomas, and for the school, the opportunity to thresh out legal issues of their right to discipline students and the justness of their penalty, in a more sober atmosphere, devoid of the emotional charge of the current dispute since the STC administration would just be obeying a court order.

Hard lessons are being learned here.

Not just for the teenage girls, who have to bear the consequences of flouting school rules about bikinis, boys and Facebook exposure.

The Catholic school, a respected institution in Cebu, has to face the backlash of enforcing rules in a manner that, in the words of the judge, fell short of being fair and humane.

With the closed gate, the other lesson could be a willingness to heed a higher order.