CASE STUDY #1

on

Deped Probes Tiktok Video Of Teacher

‘Insinuating Potential Child Abuse’

PREPARED BY:

JAMES N. LARGO
BSED - MATHEMATICS

Summary:
 The Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday, November 5, ordered its regional unit
in Central Luzon to probe the viral TikTok video of a teacher for “insinuating a potential child
abuse action.”

Introduction:

TikTok is a platform that brings joy to our millions of users, and we are committed to
developing industry-leading policies and tools that also make TikTok the safest platform for
those users.

Our approach to user safety spans policies, practices, product, people, and partners.
Today, we want to outline some of our protective measures in order to provide transparency on
our practices and share our efforts to prevent and remove Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). 

This area is challenging but critically important for our industry, but TikTok has a zero
tolerance policy for predatory or grooming behavior.

Protecting against the threat of online child sexual exploitation and abuse is an issue
that requires a global response, including collaboration between governments and industry, and
the sharing of skills and resources to support a safe online environment.

The Department of Education (DepEd) is set to probe an incident involving a teacher in

Central Luzon for posting a TikTok video "insinuating a potential child abuse action."

"The Department of Education, as an institution trusted to protect the rights of every

Filipino learner, does not tolerate any forms of abuse towards children," the agency said.

DepEd said Secretary Leonor Briones had instructed its regional director in Central Luzon
to immediately investigate the case and mete the teacher with appropriate actions. It did not
provide specific details about the teacher.

Methodology:

This study determines the level of awareness of the teachers in the Child Protection
Policy and the level of its implementation in every school. The study used a descriptive research
with survey as its primary data gathering tool. 165 elementary teachers chosen through random
sampling took part in the survey. With the help of Microsoft Excel, the researcher used the
following statistical tools: frequency and percentage to describe the demographic profile; mean
and standard deviation to describe the indicators under level of awareness and level of
implementation. The study found out that most of the teachers are aware of the Child
Protection Policy, but its implementation in the schools is not that rigid. Therefore, it is
recommended that implementing the Child Protection Policy be monitored and a more
comprehensive information drive be given to teachers. Training modules which include positive
and non-violent discipline in classroom management, anger and stress management and gender
sensitivity should be included in seminars to be conducted.

Context:

Child Protection is a vital international phenomenon. It emphasized preventing abuse

and maltreatment. The United Nations General Assembly approved the Child Rights Convention
in 1989 to avert any impairment that could threaten children and warrant that it protects their
rights (Mulinge, 2010). Child abuse, as stated in World Health Organization (2006), is
categorized as physical, sexual and emotional

There are parents who exert extra work in keeping their children safe whilst online.
Parents often use online services that shield children from malicious actors, along with parental
control software to regulate the amount of time children stay online, hoping to prevent
addiction, and to also restrict what they can access online. However, these are all negated
when teachers force the students to use social media for their classes. As a parent, I know this
as I have kids who were forced to go to Facebook because their teachers (and worse, the
department and/or college), albeit unofficially, use it for class-related announcements.

There are numerous studies conducted on the ill-effects of social media to children and
young adults, but for some reason, it seems like officials from academic institutions seem to
ignore them. What is worse is when government agencies, such as the Department of
Education (DepEd) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), ignore
such studies. The silence of non-government organizations, such as the Philippine Pediatric
Society (PPS), in providing guidance on the use of social media for children clearly does not
help either.

This recent study by Thorn.org, a non-profit organization dedicated on building

technology to protect children, “Responding to Online Threats: Minors’ Perspectives on
Disclosing, Reporting, and Blocking”, highlight how social media fails in protecting children from
abuse and harassment, among other things. In the Philippines, there is the Republic Act 7610,
which provides special protection for children against abuse, exploitation and discrimination.
Does the failure of a social media company to protect children in violation of RA 7610? The
sanction defined by the law only applies to physical establishments, not online entities, but it
would be interesting to know how Philippine lawyers will interpret this. Sorry, I am not a
lawyer.

The department targets to guarantee such special protection from all forms of abuse
and exploitation and care as is essential for the child’s well-being, taking into account the
principal rights and duties of parents/ legal guardians ( DepEd Order No. 40, s. 2012). The
DepEd Order also enumerated preventive and protective measures to address child abuse,
exploitation, violence, discrimination and bullying and other acts of abuse. Preventive measures
suggest that school personnel, pupils and parents should attend trainings and seminars with
topics about dealing with abuse, including positive peer relationships and enhancement of social
and emotional competence. Protective and Remedial measures are the procedures to be
employed in handling incidents in school. Likewise, Cervancia et al., (2019) recommends in
their study to dwell on implementing the DepEd Child Protection Policy focusing on monitoring
the system adopted by schools and on probing on the capacity of activities afforded to teachers
in both public and private educational settings.

Conclusion:

If we are to protect our children, then the DepEd must ensure that teachers are not subjecting
students to these social media. The fact that the likes of Facebook are being used as a learning
tool, which they are not — not by a mile— whilst putting children at risk of abuse and
harassment, among others, must be banned. The use of DepEd of Facebook (and YouTube) to
make their announcements make them complicit in putting children at harm’s way.

There are programs by non-government and private organizations in teaching our

children how to be safe whilst online — but without mentioning the risks of using social media
platforms, such as Facebook , Tiktok— are indescribable! What is even worse is that local
telecommunication companies are spearheading some of these programs, and yet they promote
these social media companies! So, if, by chance, you find yourself in one of their events, and
you get a chance to ask a question, ask them about the ill-effects of the social media platforms
that they are promoting (and yes, these same social media companies are sponsoring these
events, too).

References:

C:\Users\ccbarit\Documents\partment of Q.tif (deped.gov.ph)

DepEd probes teacher for 'a potential child abuse action' in Tiktok video | Inquirer News

DocHdl1OnPN-PRINTRDY-01tmpTarget (unicef.org)
 CASE STUDY #2

on

DEPRESSION AMONG PUBLIC SCHOOL

TEACHERS IN THE PHILIPPINES

“Public School Teacher Hangs Self in Leyte”

PREPARED BY:

JAMES N. LARGO
BSED - MATHEMATICS
Summary:

A Public-school teacher in Leyte allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself at her

home in Leyte on Friday, October 16, 2020. The husband discovered her body inside their
residence around 6 a.m. Friday. According to the police, the victim had suffered from
depression and sleeplessness for almost two days. In a report, the husband said he got a
chance to talk with the victim the night before the incident, adding that he was not expecting
that she could do it to herself.

The victim was declared dead by the municipal health officer who personally conducted
examination on the cadaver. Police are investigating the incident. Filipino Balik Scientist Dr.
Christian Gloria, department chair of Public Health at Hawaii Pacific University, reminded the
public of the importance of mental health in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Don't forget to talk to our family and friends. Check in on each other. Talk about our feelings,
our experiences, our challenges,” Gloria said. “If someone needs professional assistance
(psychologist, psychiatrist, counselor), let's help them be connected to those resources," added
the public health expert. The Department of Health and the World Health Organization earlier
joined efforts in raising awareness on the importance of mental health during this pandemic.

Introduction:

The teaching profession is proven without a doubt as to the noblest and stressful job in
the country. In the Philippines, teachers are expected of numerous tasks of such as
teaching, extending community linkages and perform clerical functions. In particular,
teachers are required to provide a conducive learning environment, prepare a lesson plan,
provide instructional materials, engage into classroom teaching, rate students’ performances,
conduct home visitation, participate in co-curricular activities inside and outside of school,
engage into continuing professional development courses, conduct research outputs and
attend in-service training. Further, teachers are anticipated to take part in the different
programs and activities sponsored by the parents and community partner activities to foster
linkages in the institution. The emotional turmoil, work strains, role conflict, and low reward
system influences the increase of job burnout, anxiety and depression among these public-
school teachers. Othman (2019), mentioned that public-school teachers with minimal teaching
experience and without supervisors are more susceptible to occupational stress (Othman,
2019). De los Santos, Albasin, & de los Santos, (2018) mentioned young professionals in
particular who have not developed a sound coping mechanism in handling occupational stress
and with low self-efficacy were highly associated to mental health issues, specifically in this
study, mental depression.
Methodology:

Mental Depression is a mental health problem which affects everyone regardless of

socioeconomic status in the community. American Psychiatric Association (APA) defined
depression having multiple symptoms which include frequent and prolonged depressed mood
and diminished interest in most daily activities (Hindman & Bustamante, 2019). Researchers
presented depression as the leading cause to negative emotions in the workplace, burnout,
anxiety and depersonalization. It can be observed as part of the ageing process of every
individual in the organization but as revealed in several studies it has become one of the
major concerns in mental health issues in the country. The public-school teacher’s mental
health is dependent on how they handle the different sources stress in their academic life.
The level of occupational stress among these teachers in the public school in the Philippines has
adversely affected their work performance and interpersonal relationships in and outside of the
organization. As published in different reputable news agencies there is a growing number of
public-school teachers with mental health problems, which leads to tragic incidence. The
passage of Philippine Mental Health Act of 2017 (Republic Act No. 11036) provides every
Filipinos with the right to access to mental health services on psychiatric, psychosocial and
neurological in all hospitals, and the basic mental health services in the community
settings. It further seeks to establish access to comprehensive and integrated mental
health services, while protecting the rights of the people with mental disorders and their family
members.

According to researchers and expert’s mental health services remains a poorly resourced
sector of healthcare in the Philippines (Lally, Tully, & Samaniego, 2019). Most of the psychiatrist
works in for-profit services or private practices. To note by experts, mental health remains to be
the neglected healthcare due to stigma that one may undergo in the process of recovery.
Experts revealed that journalists may embed emotional sentiments that may affect the
discourse of arguments as either positive or negative (Balahur et al., 2013). Employing
sentiment analysis is the application of Natural Language Processing to extract the subjective
information from published news articles (Shirsat, 2017). Taj, Shaikh, & Meghji, (2019)
mentioned two processes to automate the sentiment analysis in news articles through lexicon
method and machine learning method.

On the 24th of July, 2017 the Congress of the Philippines published the REPUBLIC ACT
No. 11036. An Act Establishing a National Mental Health Policy for the Purpose of Enhancing the
Delivery of Integrated Mental Health Services, Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Persons
Utilizing Psychosocial Health Services, Appropriating Funds Therefor and Other Purposes.

The state commits itself to promoting the well-being of people by ensuring that; mental
health is valued, promoted and protected; mental health conditions are treated and prevented;
timely, affordable, high quality, and culturally-appropriate mental health case is made available
to the public; mental health service are free from coercion and accountable to the service
users; and persons affected by mental health conditions are able to exercise the full range of
human rights, and participate fully in society and at work free from stigmatization and
discrimination.

The State shall comply strictly with its obligations under the United Nations Declaration
of Human Rights, the Convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities, and all other
relevant international and regional human rights conventions and declarations. The applicability
of Republic act No. 7277, as amended, otherwise known as the "Magna Carta for Disabled
Persons", to person with mental health conditions, as defined herein, is expressly recognized.

The objectives of this Act are as follows:

(a) Strengthen effective leadership and governance for mental health by, among
others, formulating, developing, and implementing national policies, strategies,
programs, and regulations relating to mental health;

(b) Develop and establish a comprehensive, integrated effective and efficient

national mental health care system responsive to the psychiatric, neurologic, and
psychosocial needs of the Filipino people;

(c) Protect the rights and freedoms of persons with psychiatric, neurologic, and
psychosocial needs; Filipino people;

(d) Strengthen information systems, evidence and research for mental health;

(e) Integrated mental health care in the basic health services; and

(f) Integrate strategies promoting mental health in educational institutions, the

workplace, and in communities.

Conclusion:

The Philippine Council for Mental health, herein referred to as the Council, is hereby
established as a policy-making planning, coordinating and advisory body, attached to the DOH to
oversee the implementation of this Act, particularly the protection of the rights and freedom of persons
with psychiatric, neurologic, and psychosocial needs and the delivery of rational, unified and integrated
mental health services responsive to the needs of the Filipino people.

References:

Public school teacher hangs self in Leyte - SUNSTAR

Republic Act No. 11036 (lawphil.net)