Cebu court allows 'bikini' students to graduate

CEBU CITY, Philippines  – The Regional Trial Court here yesterday ordered St. Theresa’s College (STC) to allow two of its senior high school students to attend their graduation ceremonies today after the school sanctioned them for posting pictures of themselves in bikinis in their Facebook accounts.

Cebu RTC Branch 19 Judge Wilfredo Navarro issued the temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining the school from enforcing the penalties on the two high school students.

The order includes allowing the two students “to join the practice sessions in preparation for the holding of the commencement exercises, to join the march during the processional along with the rest of the graduates… to have their full names called along with the names of the others when the roll of graduates is announced during the said commencement exercises and to march along with the other graduates to receive their respective certificate or diploma on the stage or podium during the same commencement exercises.”

The court directed STC to treat the two girls with “kindness and civility befitting true graduates of a respectable institution sans any discrimination for the entire duration of the commencement exercises.”

STC earlier barred the two students from attending the graduation ceremonies for violating school policy.

The school administration imposed the sanction for the “obscene photos” the students posted on their Facebook page that showed one of them wearing a bikini during a birthday of a friend.

A mother of one of the girls - a doctor - filed a complaint against STC for the “harsh sanction” imposed on her daughter.

Another joined the petition on behalf of her daughter by filing a motion for intervention before the court.

The two students allegedly violated the rules pertaining to their conduct within and outside the school campus that leads to their exclusion despite having “qualified academically to graduate (from) high school.”

Through their lawyers, they argued before the court that the girls were denied due process when one of them signed the probation with corresponding penalty.

The lawyers said the students were called by the principal and scolded in a manner that was embarrassing and disparaging, calling them “sluts, drunkards and cheap.”

STC legal counsel Romeo Balili urged the court to deny the application for the TRO and writ of preliminary injunction for no legal basis.

He said the act of consenting to be photographed in a lewd manner and uploading the pictures on Facebook violates the teaching in Catechism.

Balili said the sanction imposed against the students was justifiable.

He however added the school was not happy to impose such sanction but it had to be done.

“St. Theresa’s College has (been) faithful to its mission as Catholic educational institution. The essence of penalty is a call to true repentance and conversion, the central theme of the New Testament and a cornerstone of the Christian life,” Balili said in a memorandum submitted to the court.

But the court was not convinced with Balili’s argument.

“It was very apparent that the imposition of the penalties on the minors is of dubious propriety or validity to say the least, if not completely unlawful,” Judge Navarro said.

The court said the students were not given due process after they were not informed of the “accusations” against them and failed to give their defense.

“There is no gainsaying here that the respondent institution miserably failed to follow its own rules or procedures as embodied in the student’s handbook or manual in assuring that the rights of the students concerned would be amply protected,” the court said.

As the students concerned were minors, they were protected under Republic Act 7610 or Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act, the court said.

Under the law, the students were protected not just from physical but also verbal abuse.

Navarro said the students experienced upon being called “inappropriate names” a trauma that could last for the rest of their lives.

To deprive the students the right to participate in commencement exercises cannot help them recover from a psychological and emotional devastating experience, he said.

“The respondents ought to help them in their moral recovery and healing instead of driving them through the road to perdition,” Navarro ruled.

The National Youth Commission (NYC) said the court should rule with finality over the case.

NYC also said the action of the STC was a clear violation and abuse of the rules on academic freedom, extending it for an excuse to impinge on the personal rights and freedom of their students. 

Education Assistant Secretary Tonisito Umali said the department will investigate the complaint to determine whether the penalty imposed by the school was appropriate. –Mylen Manto/The Freeman, Rainier Allan Ronda