3 bloggers say teachers now shun them

Three of the students suspended for the blogs they posted against their principal said yesterday the controversy has brought them stigma, noting that some of their teachers now treat them differently.

Mychael Miravite, who is now on his third year at the Quezon City Science High School (QCSHS), is even contemplating transferring to another school after the controversy.

“If this thing won’t be resolved, I would rather choose to transfer to another school next school year. If I stay (at QCSHS) the principal might just pick on me all the time,” Miravite told reporters in a press conference.

Bea Samson, who is graduating this year, said she fears their rift with principal Zenaida Sadsad will make it difficult for her to secure her credentials and other papers from the school after graduation.

“For example, I’m worried that I won’t be able to claim my certificate of good moral character, which is dependent on the decision of our principal,” Samson said.

Samson recounted a “threat” she received from the principal over a blog entry where she wrote that “I don’t want to graduate under her (Sadsad’s) administration.”

“She (Sadsad) asked me if I wanted for her to make that happen,” Samson said.

Miravite and another third year student, who was also among the four suspended bloggers, had been sick because of the stress that the controversy has brought them. The student has requested that his name be withheld for now, though he said the suspension did not pass through due process.

According to Miravite, he has had many sleepless nights just thinking about the suspension meted on them by Sadsad.

The suspension on the four QCSHS students was temporarily lifted by the Department of Education pending an investigation.

Miravite said that at school, many could not believe what happened and the fact that they wrote the blog entries.

But he said he believes many of his schoolmates remain supportive of him.

Miravite, Samson and the third year student all say that they have never been involved in any misdemeanor at school. They said they were never even involved in student activism.

Samson said that after the incident, she said the teachers she was once close to no longer approach her when they cross paths along school corridors.

“Some cannot really believe what happened because they know me as a very quiet and soft-spoken student,” she said.

Student council chairman Jizzer Lawrence Co said a petition has been circulating in the campus stating what he described as their grievances concerning the policies imposed by their principal.

Among the issues they raised were the collection of “notarial fees” from students during enrolment; the alleged arbitrary changes in the number and type of elective courses offered to students; the replacement of the school paper adviser; and a policy of not allowing latecomers to enter the school to attend their classes.

Miravite maintained that what they wrote on their blogs were just their “observations” of the sentiments of their fellow students about the policies at school.