DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 9 January)—The newly installed president of the Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU) said he will put emphasis on fostering a peaceful educational community among its students to combat bullying and other similar forms of violence.
Fr. Karel S. San Juan, S.J., the new president of Ateneo de Davao University. Photo from the AdDU website
“We have a good team of counselors here [in our university]. But definitely, if there are still incidents of bullying, that means we’re not yet fully effective, and therefore we will need to evaluate, assess and re-strategize our approaches towards bullying,” Fr. Karel S. San Juan, SJ, said in a press conference Monday.
The university has been reported to record cases of bullying which had gone viral in social media these past few years.
One of the notable ones was back on January 27, 2023, where two students, wearing the school’s junior high physical education uniforms, engaged in a physical altercation.
The video showed that one student was seen choking the other inside the boys’ comfort room. One student in the background said “tama na (enough)” in an attempt to stop the fight.
This particular viral video prompted Senator Win Gatchalian to file Senate Resolution No. 454, a resolution which would probe on the status of the implementation of the Republic Act No. 10627, also known as Anti-Bullying Act of 2013, to address the recurring incidences of bullying in the schools “to recommend policy and legislative interventions for its effective enforcement.”
In a press release, the Senate quoted Gatchalian that the law must “ensure that every school is effectively implementing procedures described in the anti-bullying law, including immediate responses, reporting, fact-finding and documentation, intervention, and disciplinary measures.”
Back in April 2023, a now-deleted Twitter thread posted by a former junior high school student shared her “traumatizing experience” while being an Atenean, as the user claimed she was continuously abused “physically, mentally, verbally, and sexually” by her former schoolmate she was in a relationship with.
San Juan said that the occurrences of bullying is indeed a phenomenon, which needs to be stopped “decisively” among schools, especially in basic education, which covers kindergarten up to Grade 6.
He also said that at this stage, students are facing a range of complex issues, such as relationship, social, and psychological challenges, which are further affected by the impact of social media, artificial intelligence, and global events.
“Great emphasis should be on psychology, counseling, community building, fostering friendships, social and emotional well-being,” San Juan said.
“[I]f our current strategies [against bullying] are not effective enough, we have to come up with additional strategies of forming the values of our students and even our teachers to make them better as being models of our students,” he added.
San Juan was officially installed as the fifth president of AdDU on Monday, bringing with him his “rich background in academics, Jesuit vocation, service, and university leadership.” He took over Fr. Joel E. Tabora, who served for 12 years. (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)
