22 students file raps vs teacher

MANILA, Philippines - A 61-year-old teacher was arrested Monday after a student of Malinta High School in Valenzuela City filed complaints against him for reportedly sexually harassing them, an official said yesterday.

After learning of James Lynn’s arrest, 21 more students from the same school filed similar complaints against him, according to Valenzuela police chief Senior Superintendent Rhoderick Armamento.

City police women’s and children’s protection section chief Inspector Josephine Dalumpines said Lynn will be charged with multiple counts of unjust vexation in relation to Republic Act 7610, the child abuse law.

The 13-year-old student who filed the first complaint said Lynn, their MAPEH (music, arts, physical education and health) teacher, tried to give her a ring in front of her classmates and called her “mahal (beloved).”

She alleged that after Lynn ordered everyone to go outside for their physical education class, he put his hands in her blouse and pulled her bra strap.

While she was on her way home that day, the student said Lynn, who was seated on a bench near the school gate, called out to her, saying, “Ex, take care. We will soon reconcile.”

One of the 21 other students who filed charges against Lynn said the teacher once told her to stand up for recitation. When she sat down, she found his hand on the seat of her chair.

“He then smelled his hand and asked me if I had already washed,” she told Senior Inspector Jose Hizon.