Only human: No penalties vs scolding teacher

MANILA, Philippines — No penalty will be meted on the teacher who went viral on social media for scolding her students while she was live on short video platform TikTok, Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Duterte said yesterday.

In an interview with reporters on the sidelines of her official visit in Cambodia, Duterte said she already saw the video and read the explanation of the teacher about it.

Duterte said that while emotions got the better of the teacher, she did not see any mean intention on the teacher’s part.

“My first reaction was that the teacher is only human. We all reach a boiling point, especially when we are frustrated. This is especially true for our teachers as they are dealing not only with a single person. One class is composed of about 25 to 45 students, sometimes 55 students,” Duterte said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Duterte said she just instructed the Department of Education (DepEd) regional director in the National Capital Region (NCR) to remind the teacher to slow down and temper her emotions whenever she is angry or frustrated.

“I saw her (teacher) explanation. So, I told our regional office that there will be no penalties for the teacher. Just remind the teacher that if she is angry, she has to pause, stop the class. And when she’s not angry anymore, that’s when she starts teaching again,” Duterte said.

“For our teachers, there’s really a need to pause when you are angry. So, I told the regional director to remind her of that,” Duterte added.

The now-deleted video, which circulated on social media over the weekend, showed a teacher scolding her class while she was live on TikTok.

The unidentified teacher, earlier confirmed by the DepEd to be working in a school in Metro Manila, was visibly angry at her class for supposedly disrespecting her.

“I did not pass the board exam just so I could be disrespected by the likes of you whose lives have yet to amount to something,” the teacher said in Filipino.

She then went on berating her students, saying that they have a trashy behavior and that they will not achieve anything, adding that they have no place in the world with their kind of attitude. She also called her students ingrates and unintelligent.

Duterte said that based on the explanation of the teacher, she did not know that she was live on TikTok during her emotional outburst.

“She said she didn’t know she was online. All of us get caught up by anger. Thus, we should know what to do when we get angry. The teacher should just be reminded of that,” Duterte said.

As for the students who might have been shocked or felt uncomfortable with the harsh words of the teacher, Duterte said they could undergo stress debriefing.

“We have teachers who are trained for stress debriefing, especially under our disaster program. So we can extend that [service] to students who have manifestations of anxiety or stress from what happened,” Duterte said.

The teachers’ group Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC), meanwhile, welcomed Duterte’s stand on the issue, saying that it “demonstrates some level of empathy from the DepEd leadership.”

The group, however, said there must be an “established policy” in case a similar incident arises.