Teacher in hot water for bringing students to Grace Poe’s event

BAYAMBANG, Pangasinan—A teacher at Bayambang Central School here is in trouble for defying a decision of her principal not to allow 17 students to perform for Sen. Grace Poe when the legislator visited San Carlos City last month.

Lourdes Quesada said the principal, Corazon Cayabyab, did not want her pupils to skip class on Aug. 26 so they could participate in a program held for Poe in the neighboring city.

Quesada said she went ahead with the students “because I could not back out of this rare chance to give my pupils this kind of exposure of singing before a large audience.”

Because she was barred from taking the children, she said, she filed a leave of absence on the afternoon of Aug. 25 to oversee the students’ rehearsal of the song for the visit.

Maria Celia Fernandez, supervisor of the Pangasinan Schools Division I, called Quesada’s attention in a memorandum and asked her to explain why she defied a school decision.

“I still have to receive an answer,” Fernandez said.

She said Poe’s visit was political in nature and employees of the Department of Education (DepEd) “must be apolitical.”

Quesada wrote Education Secretary Armin Luistro on Sept. 3 to defend her decision.

“Since the school officials have the power to control the papers that will go to the DepEd regional office, I am at the juncture of losing my job, or at the least, be [considered absent] and not properly compensated,” she said.

“I am willing to pay for the one-day-and-a-half absence if needed, believing that my kids are [worthy] to be heard,” she said.

Quesada’s students were part of a chorus, which backed the performance of three former contestants of the television show “The Voice Kids,” when Poe visited Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation in San Carlos, her father’s hometown.

Quesada said the parents allowed their children to perform for Poe.

But Cayabyab said she did not receive any official communication or invitation regarding the children’s participation in the program.

Quesada said she made the request verbally, “as we were lucky to be chosen to do the song number and each child would be accompanied by his or her parent.”

“The school would not have incurred any expense [for the trip] and it would be a chance for the children to showcase their talent in group singing,” she said. Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon