Lawyer and educator Joseph Noel Estrada stressed that character formation is key to addressing school-related violence and bullying, and said schools and teachers must be empowered to properly discipline students amid concerns over the implementation of child protection policies.
Estrada said that while security measures and prosecuting wrongdoers will help keep schools safe, putting a stop to violence starts with teaching the children proper values.
Educators play a part in this, he said.
“I think the long-term solution to school-related violence and also bullying is character formation of students. While we’re doing all of this to secure the campuses, I think we should also empower our schools, our teachers, and school administrators in forming the character of the youth,” he said on Bilyonaryo News Channel’s “Abogado.”
He noted that teachers have been restrained in instilling discipline in students as an unintended consequence of the many child protection policies in place.
“There’s also a problem between balancing child protection and student discipline. Because of the unintended consequence, I think because of so many child protection policies and misplaced implementation, our students tend to be overprotected. They are no longer being disciplined the proper way,” he said.
This has resulted in children growing up to be violent or bullies, he said.
“I think the long-term solution to all of this is at a very young age, they should be disciplined not only by their parents but also by the schools,” he said.
Teaching students the proper values is always a shared responsibility, he said.
He said it is part of the parents’ duties to work with schools in the implementation of school policies.
Estrada made the statements amid the spate of violent incidents in schools, the latest of which was a shooting at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University.