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Article XIV: School Discipline

Section 73. Absences. A pupil or student in a private school who incurs absences of more than twenty percent of prescribed number of class or laboratory periods during the school year or term should be given a failing grade and given no credit for the course or object. Such discretion shall not excuse the student concerned from responsibility in keeping in keeping up with lesson assignments and taking examinations where indicated. Section 73 originally made it mandatory for schools to fail students with absences of more than 20% of the prescribed number of class or laboratory periods and to withhold credit for the course, but this is no longer a hard and fast rule. Students with excessive absences may now be allowed to continue in a course if the school head s opinion such absences were justified. Section 74. Authority to Maintain School Discipline. Every private school shall maintain good school discipline inside the school campus as well as outside the school premises when pupils or students are engaged in activities authorized by the school. The school, its administrators and teachers, or the individual, entity or institution engaged in child care shall have special parental authority and responsibility over the minor child while under their supervision, instruction or custody. Authority and responsibility shall apply to all authorized activities whether inside or outside the premises of the school, entity or institutions. Section 75. Imposition of Disciplinary Action. School officials and academic personnel shall have the right to impose appropriate and reasonable disciplinary measures in case of minor offenses or infractions of good discipline committed in their presence. However, no cruel or physically harmful punishment shall be imposed or applied against any pupil or student. The common penalties adopted by the school authorities include (1) the imposition of a fine, (2) requiring students to do extra work or perform chores against their will, (3) corporal punishment, and (4) the reduction of grades. 1.) Fine This penalty is usually imposed on students who violate internal traffic, cleanliness, and other rules and regulations. Only two requisites must be complied with before this penalty may be legally imposed: a. Prior to its enforcement, the school community, particularly the student, must be informed of the penalty and the specific violations involved, preferably through the school publication and/ or the posting of written notices; b. The amount of the fine should be commensurate to the offense committed and must never be too harsh. The fine should not be exorbitant as it would be constitute deprivation of property without due process of law.

2.) Extra work Whether or not school authorities or teachers may legally require erring students to do something against their will as a penalty for breach of discipline would depend on whether the students are minors (and still subject to parental authority) or not. But since special parental authority is vested in school authorities and teachers, they may require minor students to fulfill certain obligations against their will for the violation of disciplinary rules. 3.) Corporal Punishment and act that inflicts pain or harm upon a child s body as punishment for wrongdoing, usually through a beating or spanking. It was widely accepted as a disciplinary measure in the past, but it can t be imposed today. These are the reasons why corporal punishment must be prohibited: a. Children can get hurt. When parents do those corporal punishments, it is mitigated by the parent s affection for the child. That is not always the case with someone who has no such natural affection; b. The power to use corporal punishment can lead to extreme punishment for relatively little cause; c. Corporal punishment models violence and the inappropriate use of power. In other words, when we use violence, we teach children to use violence to solve problems. d. Recent research indicates that corporal punishment violates the psychological and physical boundaries of children. This may give them the sense that they cannot defend their selves making them more likely to be victimized by violence or sexual abuse later in life. e. Children who are never spanked, or hardly ever spanked, fare better on some intelligence tests than children who are frequently smacked. It could be because parents/teachers who do not spank their children spend more time talking and reasoning with them. No cruel or physically harmful punishment shall be imposed or applied against any pupil or student! Section 76. Filing of Administrative Action. When the offence committed is serious and so warrant, the school head shall cause the filing of the corresponding administrative action against the erring pupil or student. No disciplinary sanction shall be applied upon any pupil or student except of cause as defined in the rules and regulations of the school or in this Manual, and after due process shall have been observed. The punishment shall be commensurate with the nature and gravity of the offense. These are minimum standards that must be met to satisfy the demands of procedural due process in student disciplinary hearings: 1. The students must be informed in writing of the nature and cause of any accusation against them; 2. They shall have the right to answer the charges against them, with the assistance of counsel, in desired;

3. They shall be informed of the evidence against them; 4. They shall have the right to adduce evidence in their own behalf; and 5. The evidence must be considered by the investigated committee or official designated by the school authorities to hear and decide the case. Section 77. Categories of Administrative Penalties. The three categories of disciplinary administrative sanctions for serious offenses or violation of school rules and regulations which may be applied upon an erring pupil or student are: Suspension, Exclusion and Expulsion. a. Suspension a penalty in which the school is allow to deny or deprive an erring pupil or student of attendance in classes for a period not exceeding twenty (20%) percent of the prescribed class days for the school year or term. 1. Preventive suspension the student will be preventively suspended from entering the school premises if the school head is convinced that the continued stay of the pupil or student during the period of the investigation will make a distraction to the normal operation of the school. The student shall be allowed to take the examinations, quizzes and graded recitations that he missed. 2. Punitive Suspension refers to the school s prevention of a student from attending class and thus from taking any examinations, quizzes and graded recitations given during the specified period. b. Exclusion a penalty in which the school is allowed to exclude or drop the name of the student rolls for being undesirable, or transfer credentials immediately issued. c. Expulsion an extreme penalty on an erring pupil or student consisting of his exclusion from admission to any public or private school in the Philippines and which requires the prior approval of the secretary. Section 78. Authority to Promulgate Disciplinary Rules. Every private school shall have the right to promulgate reasonable norms, rules and regulations that is necessary and consistent for the maintenance of good school discipline and class attendance. Such rules and regulations shall be effective as of the date of promulgation and notification to students in an appropriate school issuance or publication. Because teachers are usually the first implementers of disciplinary rules, school administrators and supervisors must frequently review the class management techniques of its faculty and make sure their methods are reasonable through workshops and in-service training. School rules (as well as the classroom rules of individual teachers) must be periodically assessed, and if found faulty, renewed. If a rule is frequently violated, it should be examined and the students and parents should be provided with copies of school s set of rules.

Specific Offenses a written code of discipline contains specific offenses and their corresponding penalties. 1.) Attempting to bribe the dean; 2.) Cursing or slapping a waitress at the school cafeteria; 3.) Disrupting classes and barricading school entrance; 4.) Assaulting a teacher; 5.) Beating up another student; 6.) Assaulting players, students and officials of another school; 7.) Fighting with another student; 8.) Hazing; 9.) Possession of marijuana and illegal drugs; 10.) Smoking marijuana; 11.) Selling examination papers; 12.) Plagiarism; 13.) Falsely accusing another student; 14.) Lying at the hearing on the charges against himself; 15.) Refusing to identify the student who violated a school rule when he knew the student; and 16.) Delivery of an offensively lewd and incident speech which contains sexual metaphors. Limitations The authority granted schools to promulgate norms, rules and regulations on discipline which is not without limit the following criteria must be observed; a. Reasonableness b. Non-curtailment of rights a.) Freedom of expression b.) Freedom of the press c.) Freedom of religion d.) Freedom of association

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