ILOILO – The outrage was too much for the Biology teacher who showed to Grade 10 students of Pili National High School in Ajuy, Iloilo a graphic sex instructional video. He quit. The investigation of the Iloilo schools division, however, will continue.
The school principal handed to Dr. Roel Bermejo, schools division superintendent, the teacher’s resignation letter yesterday morning together with the incident report.
The resignation was “effective immediately.”
“The teacher wanted to have peace of mind,” according to Bermejo.
But the letter did not indicate the teacher was remorseful, he said.
Local officials of Ajuy expressed indignation over the showing of the sex video to minors and the teacher was told to appear at the Sangguniang Bayan on Monday next week.
Bermejo said the investigation would push through and the focus would be on the appropriateness of the material shown to the students.
Bermejo also said the school principal’s incident report would be forwarded to the DepEd regional office even if the department no longer has administrative jurisdiction over the teacher due to the resignation.
He declined to divulge the report’s contents.
The teacher was a Biology graduate, said Bermejo, and was accepted to teach in high school because under the K-12 program, teachers needed for certain subjects such as Biology need not be Education degree holders.
“As to the two Grade 10 classes that were shown the sex video, the Iloilo schools division deployed a registered guidance councilor to Pili National High School to determine what interventions are needed, if at all,” said Bermejo.
He also tasked the school principal to make sure there’s a replacement for the resigned teacher.
The incident prompted an upset Ajuy Sangguniang Bayan member Angel Briones, chairperson of the committee on public order and safety, to ask who, under DepEd’s guidelines, is the proper person to handle sex education in schools – is it the science teacher or the guidance councilor?
For his part, Mayor Jett Rojas said he has no problem with sex education in schools but stressed the importance of using teaching materials suitable to the target learners.
Impressionable youngsters could form silly ideas from sex education materials not suitable for their age, he said.
Bermejo said DepEd has an accessible portal for teaching materials related to sex education.
Teachers may use supplementary materials to enrich the students’ learning “but appropriateness should serve as criteria in choosing the materials,” he stressed.
The Iloilo schools division may conduct a teachers’ seminar on this concern, said Bermejo.
Regarding the video in question, Rojas said, “Kon tan-awon mo gid, pang-married couple ini nga ma-spice up ang ila sexual life. Ti, ang audience mo kabataan, suited bala ini sa ila?”
Showing the video to minors was “a form of abuse,” said SB member Briones.
From what he had gathered, the teacher got the video (“A Girl’s Guide to 21st Century Sex 2018”) from popular video sharing internet application YouTube./PN
