The teacher accused of slapping a 14-year-old student who later lapsed into a coma before dying has gone on “personal leave” pending the results of a fact-finding investigation being conducted by the Department of Education (DepEd).
In a radio interview on Wednesday, Education Assistant Secretary Francis Cesar Bringas said the teacher from Peñafrancia Elementary School in Antipolo City could not immediately be placed under preventive suspension by the DepEd Calabarzon regional director because a case had yet to be filed against her.
“That (preventive suspension) is happening only after prima facie evidence … has been found as per the fact-finding investigation,” he told Radyo 630.
In a statement, the Antipolo Schools Division Office said the fact-finding team was directed to conduct an “immediate, cautious and comprehensive … investigation in recognition of the right of both parties to be heard as part of due process.”
Only ‘positive discipline’
According to Bringas, the school and DepEd officials began looking into the case on Oct. 3, a day after Francis Jay Gumikib, a Grade 5 student of the school, passed away in the hospital.
“Since the incident was reported to the school only after the child died, that was when the procedure commenced,” he said. If found guilty of grave misconduct, the teacher could be dismissed from the service, Bringas added as he stressed that corporal punishment was not allowed in public schools. “We don’t tolerate that in the department and what we are advocating is ‘positive discipline’ rather than punitive.”
Asked what other steps DepEd could take, he said that since the administrative proceedings had started, “the only thing the department can really do is to go through this process.” Police want airtight case
Antipolo City police officer in charge Lt. Col. Ryan Manongdo said that regardless of the autopsy results, Gumikib’s mother was determined to file criminal charges against her son’s teacher.
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The police, however, want to see the findings first to ensure an airtight case. “Although we want to expedite the filing of the complaint, we want to ensure that justice will be given to the family, ” Manongdo told reporters on Wednesday.
Should the results indicate that Gumikib’s death was due to his being slapped, Manongdo said they would file a complaint for homicide in relation to the child abuse law (Republic Act No. 7610).
But if the boy died of unrelated causes, the charge would be the lesser offense of physical injury in relation to child abuse, he added.
According to the police officer, two witnesses had corroborated what Gumikib told his mother before he died—that he was slapped by his teacher.
Ear pain, dizziness
Elena Minggoy, the boy’s mother, told the police that his teacher pulled his collar and hair, before hitting him on the left ear on Sept. 21 after he complained about his noisy classmates.
He later complained of pain in the ear and dizziness but continued to attend his classes until Sept. 26, when his mother rushed him to Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center for dizziness, “intolerable pain” in the head, blurring of vision and vomiting.
No settlement
Gumikib lapsed into unconsciousness and then into a coma. On Oct. 2, he was pronounced dead by his attending physician. His body was taken to the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame for an autopsy the next day.
“We will pursue charges against the teacher. We want justice for the death of my son,” Minggoy told reporters, adding that she would not enter into a settlement with his teacher. “Why should I? Is that what my son is worth?
Minggoy said she had not yet talked to the teacher after her son died. “I hope that she doesn’t repeat hurting other students just to teach them a lesson. She should know [how I’m] feeling because she is also a mother, and she is the second mother of my son and other students.”
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According to PNP Forensic Group public information officer Maj. Sotero Rodrigo, the autopsy would take only a day, but the releasing of the medicolegal report would take seven days at most as it would need to be “peer-reviewed” by the unit’s senior medicolegal officers.
“The autopsy would confirm if the injuries in his body were newly inflicted. It would also determine if he had underlying diseases before his death,” Rodrigo told reporters.
Based on the death certificate released by the hospital, Gumikib’s immediate cause of death was “global brain edema” where the brain becomes inflamed due to the buildup of fluids around it.