DepEd probes school over suicide of students

CEBU CITY—The Department of Education (DepEd) in Cebu is investigating the deaths of two students in a school in Daanbantayan town, Cebu province, who committed suicide allegedly because of their failure to get clearance for the release of their grades.

Dr. Arden Monisit, DepEd Cebu superintendent, said a legal team was sent to Daanbantayan National High School, about 127.6 kilometers north of here.

He said the findings of the team would be submitted to Juliet Jeruta, DepEd Central Visayas director, who would decide if the school, or the teacher, was liable for the deaths of the two third year high school students.

According to PO3 Raymond Pepito, of the Daanbantayan police, a teacher of the subject Filipino refused to sign the clearance of the two students for failing to comply with an unspecified requirement.

Since the two didn’t have a clearance, their grades would not be released and they would not be able to move to fourth year, he added.

Jeruta reminded school officials of a school policy that bars schools from withholding clearances to compel students to pay fees.

Jeruta said under DepEd Administrative Order No. 40 (Child Protection Policy), the welfare of children should be priority.

The two students were cousins and third year students of Daanbantayan National High School.

One of them, a girl, was found hanging inside her house in Daanbantayan in the morning of March 16.

The next day, the other student, a boy, was found dead, hanging from a tree with a rope tied around his neck, about 150 meters from his house.

Both wrote notes to their classmates expressing lament over their failure to get clearances from their school.

The girl said goodbye to her classmate in a private message on Facebook.

She said she would no longer worry about not being cleared because she would no longer have to go to school.

The boy sent a text message to a classmate, saying he would rather kill himself than not get clearance to move to fourth year.