Parents play key role in keeping schools safe

The Department of Education (DepEd) deserves credit for finally drawing a harder line against bullying, violence, and threats in schools. DepEd Order No. 006, s. 2026, gives school authorities a clearer framework for dealing with misconduct, including tougher sanctions for serious and high-risk offenses and closer coordination with law enforcement, social welfare agencies, local governments and communities.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara is right on one fundamental point: compassion for erring learners must never come at the expense of the safety of everyone else.

A school cannot be a place of learning when fear is tolerated inside the campus.

The policy is particularly timely following the deadly school shootings in Tacloban City and Zamboanga City that claimed five student lives. Those tragedies should remind the country that campus violence is not merely a disciplinary problem. It is serving as a warning that something deeper is going wrong in how children are being raised, supervised, protected, and taught to deal with conflict.

That is why the House of Representatives’ approval on second reading of House Bill No. 10768, which seeks to institutionalize Parent-Teacher and Community Associations in public schools, is equally important.

However, DepEd cannot discipline its way out of a crisis of character alone.

Teachers can enforce rules. School heads can impose sanctions. Child Protection Committees can investigate. Police and social welfare agencies can intervene. But none of these institutions can replace the influence of parents.

Parents are a child’s first authority, first example, and often first source of values. They cannot leave character formation to schools and then complain when schools struggle to control behavior.

Parents must teach children that disagreement does not justify aggression, that humiliation is not entertainment, that online anonymity is not a license for cruelty, and that accountability is part of growing up. They must know what their children are doing online, who influences them and whether behavioral changes signal distress, bullying or other problems requiring intervention.

Most of all, parents must model the behavior they expect. A child who constantly sees adults settle disagreements through insults, threats, or intimidation may learn a lesson no classroom lecture can easily undo.

The private sector, too, has a stake in this fight. Businesses can help fund school counseling, mental-health and psychosocial programs, teacher training, digital-safety initiatives, emergency preparedness and child-protection education. Technology companies, in particular, can contribute expertise in combating online harassment and threats while respecting children’s privacy and rights.

But support must go beyond occasional donations and publicity-driven programs. What schools need are sustained partnerships with measurable results.

And while firm sanctions are necessary, punishment alone must not become the policy’s defining philosophy. A troubled child needs accountability. He or she may also need intervention, counseling, and a genuine opportunity to change. Protecting victims and rehabilitating offenders should be the goal.

The country should therefore welcome DepEd’s tougher rules and Congress’ push for stronger home-school-community partnerships. But implementation will determine whether these measures become meaningful safeguards or merely another set of documents on school shelves.

Safer schools will not be built by DepEd alone.

They will be built when parents accept their responsibilities and teachers are empowered to act.

Because restoring order in Philippine schools is not simply about making children obey.

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It is about helping them understand why respect matters, why violence is unacceptable, why other people’s safety matters, and why freedom without responsibility is not freedom at all.

If we want responsible citizens tomorrow, we must start building responsible children today.

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