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MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Science High School students have launched an online petition urging the PSHS board of trustees (BOT) to reconsider its decision allowing 6 students who had shared lewd photos of their female classmates online to graduate.
The online petition – named after the PSHS students’ movement, #BOTtledUp – seeks to gather support from the PSHS community after the board downgraded sanctions recommended by the PSHS main campus’ discipline office, discipline committee, management committee, and executive committee.
The committees had recommended that the students not be allowed to graduate and that they be given certificates of completion instead.
“This is the petition to urge the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Science High School System to reconsider their recently released decision regarding the sanctions against the voyeuristic actions of select students in the batch,” the petition read.
“These students have been deemed ineligible for graduation by the PSHS-MC Discipline Office, Discipline Committee, Management Committee, and Executive Committee. Unfortunately, the Board of Trustees has tempered the consequences these students will be facing,” it added.
After months of investigation, the school’s management and discipline committees found 6 male students liable for multiple “level 3” or serious offenses after they shared online lewd photos and videos of female students without the latter’s consent. The committees said the students should not be allowed to graduate and that they be given ceritficates of completion instead.
Under the school’s code of conduct, having more than one level 3 offense would make a student ineligible for graduation. But according to parents and students, the management committee’s recommendation to bar the 6 students from marching was quickly overturned by the PSHS board.
The 13-member board is chaired by Science Secretary Fortunato de la Peña and vice-chaired by Education Secretary Leonor Briones.
PSHS Executive Director Lilia Habacon told Rappler that the school board was currently studying the matter.
“The board is carefully and judiciously studying the matter. At this time, no final resolution is yet reached but will do so before graduation,” Habacon said in a text message.
The petition was launched after students, parents, and alumni gathered at the PSHS main campus to hold the PSHS board accountable for its decision. (READ: Pisay students to school board: Don’t let students who shared lewd photos graduate)
They want the BOT to reverse its decision before the graduation rites on Wednesday, May 29. – Rappler.com
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