CEBU CITY -- A grade 1 pupil in Ginatilan town had his head stitched after his teacher hit him with a broom last July 1.
John Ariel Dugaduga, 6, received six stitches to close the wound on his head, radio dyHP reported Thursday.
Josefita Lopez, his teacher at the Manggaco Elementary School, said she had instructed her class to write down something but the pupils were noisy and would not behave.
She got irked when they ignored her and threw a broom at the wall but it landed on the head of Dugaduga, Lopez said.
The broom's handle is made of bamboo with sharp edges.
Dugaduga had to be taken to the Malabuyoc District Hospital for treatment. In a TV5 report, Lopez cried as she apologized to Dugaduga's grandmother, Paviana Dugaduga, at the principal's office. She said she did not intend to hurt the boy.
Paviana, who sought help from radio dyHP last July 6, did not accept the teacher's apology. She said Lopez had endangered her grandson's life.
Susana Delucora, district supervisor of the Cebu Province Schools Division, said she has asked the principal to submit a report on the incident.
Principal Artemio Balintang said what Lopez did was wrong and that he reminds his teachers never to hit their pupils.
In Alcoy town, a 10-year-old boy died last Tuesday after allegedly falling off a cliff in Sitio Bululacao, Barangay Nug-as.
According to a radio report Thursday, the boy died because of head injuries he suffered when his teacher hit him on the head with a piece of bamboo stick.
But PO2 Gerlito Estremar of Alcoy Police Station said John Leemar Gitarullas died after he fell off a cliff last May 14.
Witnesses told the police that Gitarullas fell and rolled over three times. His injuries required him to be confined in the hospital, Estremar said.
Estremar said Alcoy Mayor Nicomedes Delos Santos helped the victim when the boy's parents sought financial help.
In a TV Patrol report on Thursday, the boy's parents denied the boy was harmed by his teacher in class, and clarified that they have no plans of filing a complaint against the teacher.
When classes opened last month, Department of Education (DepEd) Central Visayas Assistant Director Carmelita Dulangon reminded teachers to exercise patience in dealing with their pupils.
She warned them that hitting a student may cost them their job, since corporal punishment is tantamount to child abuse.
Under a DepEd order, school officials and teachers have the right to impose reasonable disciplinary measures, but are prohibited from imposing cruel and physically harmful punishment.
School officials or teachers who violate the policy face both administrative and criminal charges.
Republic Act 7610, or the Anti-Corporal Punishment Law of 2007, provides punishment to any parent, guardian or teacher who subjects a child to corporal punishment, whether verbal, physical, mental or psychological.
In 2006, a nine-year-old grade 2 pupil in Taguig City died of acute tonsillitis after her teacher forced her to swallow pencil shavings.
In Madridejos, Cebu, a grade 2 public school teacher was sentenced to four years in prison in 1999, after hitting an eight-year-old pupil with a broomstick. (RSB/DSM/Sun.Star Cebu)
