Letter sender is fictitious
-Arañez
JLNHS principal speaks up on the controversial lunch-in policy and alleged violence in campus
Leopoldo Garcia is fictitious.
This is according to Julio Ledesma National High School
Principal Glenda Arañez.
 |
| A copy of the official letter from the principal to the parents. |
Arañez told NRWP during an interview that upon investigation,
the person who sent a letter of complaint to Cynthia Demavivas, Schools
Division Superintendent, Department of Education-San Carlos Division, with a
copy furnished to NewsRecord, used an alias and that his claims are false.
The high school principal said that the lunch-in policy which
has been implemented at JLNHS since September 17 was presented to parents
during the Parents Teachers Association General Assembly in the school on June.
However, Arañez deferred its implementation and asked teachers
to send a letter to parents first during the homeroom PTA meeting and
distribution of cards on August 30.
Official letter
As Arañez showed the letter, which appears on the right side of
the page, with spaces provided below it for parents to sign if they agree to
the policy, she refuted that in no way was Garcia's claim true that parents
were made to sign a document that didn't have a heading.
In the letter, she addressed parents and asked for them to
support the school's move to impose the lunch-in policy to minimize cutting of
classes and to prevent students from smoking and using illegal drugs.
Problems & solution
She further explained that students' cutting of afternoon
classes and tardiness had been the school's perennial problem. And, as had been
imposed in private schools like Colegio de Sta. Rita and Colegio de Sto.
Tomas-Recoletos, Arañez saw lunch-in policy as a primary solution.
Passes allowed
However, students are not required to stay in school for lunch
if their parents wish them to go home. Parents were instructed to write a
letter to the principal stating their reason for not allowing their children to
eat lunch in school and the students, in turn, are given passes.
"Ug dili mo gusto, paghimo ug letter kung ipapauli ra
ang inyong bata para paniudto." The
principal explained and added that some parents choose to pick their children
from school for lunch in their homes.
Canteen controversy
Regarding the canteen operation issue, she admitted that
restaurant owner Wellyn Agravante, who is also a parent of a Ledesmanian, is
now operating the school canteen. The canteen used to be owned and managed by
the teachers' cooperative but as the students population skyrocketed from 2,678
last school year to 2,920 this year, teachers could no longer cope with their
teaching while managing the canteen.
Arañez recounted that the cooperative board members decided to
give up managing the canteen as there are still no additional teachers hired
for JLNHS and they voted for Aggravante over Seirra Marino, another bidder,
because he has a child studying in the school.
The P 20,000 rent was based on the average income of the school
canteen when it was still under the cooperative's management.
Demavivas, in a separate interview, said that public schools
are supposed to operate their own canteens through the teachers but she
considers the plight of JLNHS teachers. The superintendent estimated that the
school needs 50 more teachers to cope with its rising population but only 36
items are expected to arrive in 2013.
During her meeting with Arañez, she said that she told the
principal to operate canteen again once new teachers arrive.
Safety matters
Asked about the safety of the students while in school, Arañez
clearly stated that "They are safe, very safe" because incidents of
students committing transgressions take place outside the school and that there
were never riots in the campus.
Hazing
On September 18, eight JLNHS students and one from Calatrava
National High School were apprehended by San Carlos City Police Officers due to
hazing.
The said students were caught in the act and a wooden paddle
was recovered from the scene near the bridge at the back of Bishop's Home.
SCCPO Chief Supt. Harold Tuzon said the a student who acted as
leader was in the act of "introducing physical harm" to applicants of
the group which he further described as one that still do not have a formal
organization.
Two of the identified applicants were females and all of them
were minors.
Attitude problem
Moreover, the principal added that the episode of a student
hitting a teacher mentioned in the letter is an isolated case and that the
student has an attitude problem and had gone unmanageable.
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