The Department of Education on Thursday announced that it has filed administrative charges against five teachers who were accused of alleged sexual harassment in Bacoor National High School in Cavite.
DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa revealed that charges of grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and violation of the agency's child protection policy were filed against five out of the seven teachers involved in the alleged sexual harassment cases.
"We already issued formal charges against five of the seven teachers who were identified in the post. When we talked to the Schools Division Office and the legal department, there is still not enough evidence to identify the other two, so only five of them have been charged," Poa said.
He also reiterated his call to other victims of the alleged sexual harassment to come forward to give their affidavit, statement, or evidence so that they can also file formal charges, not just to these seven teachers but also to other teachers who committed sexual harassment to their students.
Poa said that during the preliminary investigation, the accused were asked to explain their side.
"The involved teachers were also given five days to reply," said Poa, adding that aside from administrative charges, the five teachers are also facing a 90-day preventive suspension.
The DepEd mouthpiece said that the accused were given a chance to choose which proceeding they would face either by position paper or by trial.
The case stemmed from a social media post, wherein a Twitter user who uses the name @eexpresso shared the alleged sexual advances made by the teachers to the students.
The thread was originally posted on Facebook but got deleted for allegedly violating community standards. On the said Twitter thread, one of the teachers even posted photos of his students on his social media accounts while making sexual innuendos.
Poa also said that DepEd has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of abuses perpetrated in schools, especially against learners.
"DepEd is taking all reports about sexual abuse and violence against our learners in schools seriously as we are determined to ensure that schools all over the country are safe spaces for our learners and free from sexual predators," Poa said.
"We understand that reporting experiences of sexual abuse and violence are often hampered by fear and feeling of embarrassment, but we urge Kindergarten to Grade 12 victim-survivors to report these incidents directly to the Office of the Secretary," he added.
