Miriam College (MC) released a statement Thursday promising to address social media posts from its students alleging various cases of sexual harassment from their teachers.
Ambassador Laura del Rosario, MC president, said the school initiated the investigation of the reports and “will take appropriate steps to resolve the situation.”
She also shared that the school administration will create a special committee to do “serious review of the cases in the past and the resolution to these cases.”
“This institutional Committee, independent of any existing committees will also look into and act on the current cases, if any, and to recommend appropriate steps. And in the end, we hope that closures will be achieved, and reconciliation becomes possible,” Del Rosario said in a statement.
The school will also undergo “a serious process of self-criticism” in light of the online accusations and assured the community they will “do better” following the controversial cases.
Recently, Kabataan Party-list Rep. Sarah Elago urged Miriam College to “promptly” investigate the student harassment and pedophilia allegations.
Stand with the students and alumni who are coming forward with their stories of struggles, and collectively speaking out against sexual harassment and abuse!#MARISCIDOBETTER#STCDOBETTER#SPCPSQUAREUP#MCHSDOBETTER#SafeSpacesLHSNow#TimesUpAteneo#ProtectOurStudents
— Sarah Elago (@sarahelago) June 25, 2020
Elago also called other schools to speak up about related abuses as more students and alumni shared the same experience under the hashtags #MARISCIDOBETTER, #STCDOBETTER and #SPCPSQUAREUP.
“Stand with the students and alumni who are coming forward with their stories of struggles, and collectively speaking out against sexual harassment and abuse!” she tweeted.
Meanwhile, Time’s Up Ateneo, a coalition of students, alumni, faculty and parents from Ateneo de Manila University, also encouraged the schools “to keep sexual predators away from the classroom” and warned against attempts to stop those who will speak up about the issue.
Some of the schools mentioned by the coalition were Miriam College High School, Marikina Science High School, Quezon City Science High School, St. Theresa’s College, St. Paul College Pasig, and Bulacan State University Laboratory High School, among others.
The coalition highlighted that the students have used social media to “express their anger and discontent with the way their respective school administrations have dealt with predatory behavior among faculty.”
“As the students from MCHS have asserted, our schools now have no choice but to do better. Time’s up for sexual violence and impunity!” the coalition stated.
Elago urged the public to support “more age and development-appropriate education, dialogues, discussion, information campaigns on combatting sexual harassment and abuse in schools with learning community, teachers, parents, guardians and whole campus workforce.”
She added that the Kabataan Party-list will be “filing another resolution seeking probe into schools’ procedures for investigation of sexual harassment cases and corresponding administrative sanctions” as authorized in Republic Act 7877 or the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995.
“Kaugnay po nito ay ang pagpapalakas ng mga mekanismo upang labanan ang online sexual abuse and exploitation of children and women. #ShutdownOSEC ay mahalaga relatibong mas maraming oras ang ginugugol online para sa edukasyon at trabaho,” Elago stated. (RJ Espartinez)