NAGA CITY (Bicol Standard) – DepEd Sec. Leonor Briones has directed DepEd Regional Director Gilbert Sadsad to submit an incident report regarding the burning of schoolbags at Bicol Central Academy, Libmanan, Camarines Sur last Friday Sadsad told the Bicol Standard that he had also instructed the Camarines Sur Superintendent Cecile Rivera to conduct an inquiry on the same.On Monday, Sadsad together with other DepEd officials are scheduled to visit said school and conduct their own probe on the matter.Provincial Board Member James Jaucian, who has been identified as the person involved in the burning incident and is also the head of the school, will be required to explain why he should not be sanctioned.Meanwhile, attempts from Bicol Standard to get Jaucian’s side through phone has proven futile.As of this writing, the students and parents continue to clamor for action from concerned agencies.It will be recalled that the bags were burned allegedly after some students did not follow the school directive that no bags should be brought on formal attire day.The bags which were burned reportedly contained cash, gadgets, and other personal belongings. </s> The Department of Education's regional office in Bicol says it is 'deeply saddened' by the incident and will look at possible sanctions

ALBAY, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) in Bicol is investigating the burning of students' bags at Bicol Central Academy (BCA) in Libmanan, Camarines Sur.

BCA administrator Alexander James Jaucian allegedly ordered that the bags be burned after the students failed to comply with the "no-bag" policy for a school event. Photos of the burnt bags went viral.

Jaucian, also a provincial board member in Bicol, was caught on video calling the students "stupid" as well.

"We are deeply saddened and now investigating the matter," said DepEd Bicol Director Gilbert Sadsad in a statement.

"While we cannot sanction the offending person because he is under the jurisdiction of the authorities of a private school, we will be reviewing our policies if we can provide sanctions in terms of possible revocation of the school's permit to operate and other benefits provided by the government," he added.

DepEd Bicol Information Officer III Mayflor Jumamil said the school division office in Camarines Sur has already asked BCA management for a written explanation.

Sadsad said any allegation of child abuse would be handled by the Department of Social Welfare and Development. – Rappler.com </s> MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – While discipline is a key trait learned in schools, some tactics may have gone too far.

BURNT. School bags and their contents are reduced to ashes on the BCA campus grounds. Photo by Earl Vincent CaÃ±averal

Photos posted on Twitter by Bicol Central Academy (BCA) alumnus Earl Vincent Cañaveral show a pile of burnt school bags in the school's quadrangle.

Senior high students at the Libmanan, Camarines Sur high school were instructed on Friday, August 17, not to bring large bags as they would be wearing business attire that day. The students were tapped to serve as substitute teachers while the faculty attended a seminar.

Cañaveral tweeted, "Bags of students who have failed to comply [with] the no-bag policy set for the school's event today have been confiscated and burned in the school quadrangle. The said bag[s] contain school stuff, clothings, cp and laptops. Sadly, the school involved is my alma mater. SHAME."

Bags of students who have failed to comply the no-bag policy set for the school's event today have been confiscated and burned in the school quadrangle. The said bag contains school stuff, clothings, cp and laptops.



Sadly, the school involved is my alma mater.



SHAME. pic.twitter.com/D8ICip6ae0 — earl vincent (@Surrearlism) August 17, 2018

BCA school administrator Alexander James Jaucian was identified as the official behind the bag burning.

Cañaveral followed his photo post with a video of Jaucian on the same day and in the same venue shouting violently at students, calling them "stupid."

Moreover, he just not burned the bags of those students but he also called his students stupid. Sir, we had enough. This is not education at all. pic.twitter.com/XqD6vBnfqk — earl vincent (@Surrearlism) August 17, 2018

A current student at BCA, who wished to remain anonymous, explained that many of the students needed to bring large bags with them as they did not live near the campus, had school work in the afternoon, and also needed a change of clothes.

Annalyn Sevilla, Undersecretary for Finance-Budget and Performance Monitoring in the Department of Education (DepEd), said the DepEd Region 5 Regional Director and regional counterparts have started fact-finding work on the issue.

The BCA administration has yet to release a statement on the matter.

How do you feel when school officials take extreme measures? Sound off in the comments section! – Rappler.com



Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story said the school is found in Naga City. We have corrected it to say the school is in Libmanan. </s> A viral video of a private school allegedly confiscating bags and valuables of students for violating its “no-bag” order is currently making rounds on social media, making netizens fume.

In a tweet posted by Earl Vincent Cañaveral (@Surrearlism) on Friday, students from the Bicol Central Academy in Libmanan, Camarines Sur, can be seen standing in front of their valuables, which have been burned in the school quadrangle as ordered by administrators. The post has since gone viral with 3,600 retweets and 8,000 likes on Twitter.

Aside from confiscating the items, one video showed school head Alexander James Jaucian shouting at the students for disobeying the school’s order, calling them “stupid.” “Sir, we had enough. This is not education at all,” the netizen wrote.

According to Cañaveral, this happened on the school’s Tasumaki Day, when students were told to wear formal attire. Students were also discouraged to bring big bags, but pouches were allowed. Cañaveral added the reason why students brought their bags was for a change of clothing as required by other school activities.

“Noon pong nasa waiting area sila, the school head saw these bags and raged out,” Cañaveral told INQUIRER.net. “He asked a school staff to confiscate the bags and asked the students to line up in the quadrangle.” In his tweet, Cañaveral said that valuables, such as cellphones and laptops, were included to be burned in the area.

As of this writing, the school involved has not released an official statement. </s> Thiruvananthapuram: A private school in Pampady, Kottayam district, was attacked by infuriated student activists after a Grade 9 boy of the school committed suicide, allegedly because he learnt he would be failed to ensure a better pass percentage for the school in next year’s class 10 examinations.

The management of the Crossroads Higher Secondary School in Pampady denied the allegation that the school resorted to deliberately failing students. But enraged student activists attached to the Students Federation of India marched to the school and pelted stones at the building, causing damage to the building and fixtures.

Dozens of protesters stormed into the school compound on Sunday morning, destroyed the nameboard and pelted stones at the building, breaking window panes. The protesters ran riot all around the campus for several minutes, causing widespread damage.

Police forces were ready at the school campus, aware of the protest, and the activists clashed with the police. Police resorted to firing tear gas shells and some of the protesters were injured in the skirmish.

The deceased student was identified as Jinto Eapen, son of Eapen Varghese, a resident of Kottayam district. Jinto’s mother, Bindi is a schoolteacher in the same district. Jinto was his parents’ only son.

Jinto was found dead in his home on Saturday evening. His parents suspect that he took his life as he feared that he would be failed in class 9, so that the school would be assured of a hundred per cent pass in the class 10 examination next year.

The school authorities had informed the boy’s parents about his low marks in school, but not that he was going to be failed, reports said. </s> The department says it 'denounces all forms of violence against our students, teachers, and personnel,' and echoes the call for an impartial investigation

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) on Sunday, August 21, said it condemns the killing of one of its students, Kian Loyd delos Santos, by Caloocan police during an anti-drug operation in the city.

"The Department of Education strongly condemns the shooting of Kian Loyd Delos Santos, a Grade 11 student of Our Lady of Lourdes Senior High School in Valenzuela, by elements of the Caloocan police," the DepEd said in a statement.

The department said it "denounces all forms of violence against our students, teachers, and personnel," and echoed the call for an impartial investigation into Delos Santos' death last Wednesday, August 16.

The 17-year-old allegedly fought back against police during an operation last Wednesday, August 16, but CCTV footage showed otherwise. Eyewitnesses also said the kid was handed a gun by police, and was ordered to pull the trigger and run.

The kid's death has triggered outrage from citizens, politicians, the Church, and many other sectors, and has highlighted once again the bloody war on drugs campaign of the Duterte administration, which has been linked to at least 7,000 deaths, including minors. (READ: Our son, Kian: A good, sweet boy)

"While we acknowledge that law enforcement is an important aspect in the government's comprehensive efforts to battle illegal drugs, ensuring accuracy of information and upholding the rule of law should not be compromised," the department said.

As part of the anti-drug abuse campaign, the department recently announced that it will begin its random drug testing program of students and teachers in public and private high schools in September.

DepEd said this would allow her department to determine the prevalence of drug users among students and teachers and help assess the effectivity of school-based and community-based prevention programs.

However, DepEd said the results will be confidential and won't be an alternate "tokhang" – in reference to the Philippine National Police's Oplan Tokhang. – Rappler.com </s> MANOKWARI, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia has deployed more than 1,000 security personnel to the restive province of West Papua amid spreading protests and violence, police said Wednesday.

Protests sparked by accusations that security forces had arrested and insulted Papuan students in East Java’s Surabaya city turned violent on Monday, when demonstrators torched a local legislative building and set fire to cars in Manokwari, the provincial capital.

The protests were triggered by videos circulated widely on the internet showing police, backed by soldiers, calling the Papuan students “monkeys” and “dogs.”

Papua is a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia. It was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot that was seen as a sham by many.

Since then, a low-level insurgency has plagued the mineral-rich region, which is divided into two provinces, Papua and West Papua. In recent years, some Papua students, including some who study in other provinces, have become vocal in calling for self-determination for their region.

Police stormed dormitories in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, on Sunday after Papuan students staying there refused to be questioned over allegations that they had intentionally damaged the Indonesian flag in the dormitory’s yard.

East Java police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera said 43 students were detained but released hours later after no evidence was found that they had damaged the flag. The videos showing the behavior of security forces sparked national outcry.

West Papua Police Chief Herry Rudolf Nahak said authorities have the situation under control after more than a thousand additional police and soldiers were deployed from other cities, including from Jakarta, Bali and Makassar.

Nahak said protesters also destroyed parts of an airport and about 250 inmates escaped in a prison break in Sorong on Monday.

He said several hundred demonstrators in Fakfak, another city in West Papua, burned a market and destroyed ATMs and shops early Wednesday.

Videos posted by residents in Fakfak and circulated online show demonstrators chanting “Freedom Papua” and holding banners demanding a referendum for independence. The crowd, including a man holding the morning star flag that is a separatist group symbol, are seen throwing rocks at police, who respond with tear gas as grey smoke billows from burning market.

Several thousands of protesters, many wearing headbands with a separatist flag, also staged peaceful rallies Monday in Jayapura, the capital city of Papua province.

Nahak said the situation was brought under control after the additional police and soldiers were sent in. </s> A blaze that killed at least 34 girls at a shelter for troubled youths erupted when some of them set fire to mattresses to protest rapes and other mistreatment at the badly overcrowded institution, the parent of one victim said Thursday.

Officials said they are still investigating who started the fire Wednesday at the long-criticized shelter on the outskirts of Guatemala’s capital. It houses troubled and abused boys and girls as well as juvenile offenders.

Nineteen victims were found dead at the scene, and 15 more succumbed one by one to their grisly injuries at hospitals in Guatemala City. Several more girls were fighting for their lives, some with severe burns over more than half their bodies.

The fire started when someone ignited mattresses in a dormitory that held girls who had been caught the day before during a mass breakout attempt, authorities said.

On Thursday, distraught parents haunted hospitals and the morgue, passing scraps of paper scrawled with the names of loved ones they hoped to find.

Geovany Castillo said his 15-year-old daughter Kimberly suffered burns on her face, arms and hands but survived. She was in a locked area where girls who took part in the escape attempt had been placed, he said.

“My daughter said the area was locked and that several girls broke down a door, and she survived because she put a wet sheet over herself,” Castillo said.

“She said the girls themselves set the fire,” he said, adding: “She said the girls told her that they had been raped and in protest they escaped, and that later, to protest, to get attention, they set fire to the mattresses.”

Another surviving 15-year-old girl said that male residents had apparently been able to enter at least some of the girls’ dormitories before the fire. She and others took refuge on a roof for fear of being attacked and saw the fire break out in a nearby building.

“I saw the smoke in the place,” she said. “It smelled like flesh.”

The state-run Virgin of the Assumption Safe House has long been the subject of complaints about abuse, inadequate food and crowded and unsanitary conditions behind its 30-foot wall. The shelter was built to hold 500 young residents but housed at least 800 at the time of the fire.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales issued a statement blaming the disaster on the courts for ignoring a request by his administration to transfer juvenile offenders out.

“Before the fire, the government had asked the appropriate authorities to immediately transfer youthful offenders to other detention centres, to avoid greater consequences,” the president’s office wrote.

“The government regrets the fact that those authorities did not heed that request in an opportune way, something which could have prevented the tragedy.”

Jorge de Leon, Guatemala’s human rights prosecutor, said in a statement that during the mass breakout the evening before the fire, at least 102 children who escaped had been located, but others managed to flee. He said younger children fled the shelter because they were being abused by older residents.

“According to what they say, the bigger kids have control and they attack them constantly,” de Leon said. “They also complain that food is scarce and of poor quality.”

In 2013, a 14-year-old girl was strangled by another resident, investigators said.

Authorities said DNA tests might be necessary to identity some remains. A doctor at one hospital asked parents waiting outside for information to come back with photographs, dental records and details about tattoos or other distinctive features.

Piedad Estrada, a street vendor, arrived with a photograph of her 16-year-old daughter. She said the teen was pregnant and had been at the shelter for nine days because she ran away from home.

Estrada searched at the hospitals and the morgue but got no information. She showed the photo to workers at one hospital, but they said they had five girls who were completely bandaged so they could not be sure.

“They only took her from me to burn her,” Estrada said. “I blame the state for what has happened.” </s> (KUALA LUMPUR) — A fire that blocked the only exit to an Islamic school dormitory killed 24 people who were trapped behind barred windows, mostly teenagers, on the outskirts of Malaysia's capital early Thursday, officials said. A government official said a wall separating the victims from a second exit "shouldn't have been there."

Firefighters and witnesses described scenes of horror — first of boys screaming for help as neighbors watched helplessly, and later of burned bodies huddled in a corner of the room. School employee Arif Mawardy said he woke up to what he thought was a thunderstorm, only to realize it was the sound of people screaming.

Firefighters rushed to the scene after receiving a distress call at 5:41 a.m. and took an hour to put out the blaze, which started on the top floor of the three-story building, Kuala Lumpur police chief Amar Singh said. He said there were at least 24 charred bodies, 22 of them boys between 13 and 17, and two teachers.

"We believe (they died of) suffocation ... the bodies were totally burnt," he said.

Singh said 14 other students and four teachers were rescued, with six of them hospitalized in critical condition.

The fire broke out near the only door to the boys' dormitory, trapping the victims since the windows were barred, fire department senior official Abu Obaidat Mohamad Saithalimat said. He said the cause was believed to be an electrical short-circuit, though Singh said the investigation was continuing.

Another fire department official, Soiman Jahid, said firefighters heard shouts for help when they arrived at the school. He said they found 13 bodies huddled in a pile on the right corner of the dorm, another eight on the left corner of the dorm and one in the middle near the staircase.

Local media showed pictures of blackened bunk bed frames in the burned dormitory. A resident, Nurhayati Abdul Halim, told local media that she saw the boys crying and screaming for help when the fire broke.

"I saw their little hands out of the grilled windows; crying for help. ... I heard their screams and cries but I could not do anything. The fire was too strong for me to do anything," she said. She added that the school had been operating in the area for the past year.

Noh Omar, Malaysia's minister for urban well-being, housing and local government, said the school's original architectural plan included an open top floor that allowed access to two exit staircases. But he said a wall was built dividing that floor, leaving only one exit for the dorm.

"The wall shouldn't have been there," he said. He added that the school submitted an application for a fire safety permit that hadn't been approved.

The Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah is a private Islamic center, known as a "tahfiz" school, for Muslim children, mainly boys, to study and memorize the Quran. Many such schools are exempt from state inspections.

The Star newspaper said there were 519 tahfiz schools registered nationwide as of April, but many more are believed to be unregistered.

The newspaper said the fire department had recorded 211 fires in such private Islamic centers since 2015. In August, 16 people fled a fire at a tahfiz school in northern Kedah state. Another tahfiz school was destroyed by a fire in May but no one was hurt.

The worst fire disaster occurred in 1989 when 27 female students at a private Islamic school in Kedah state died when fire gutted the school and eight wooden hostels.
A school official in Bicol Central Academy, a school in Libmanan, Camarines Sur, Philippines burned students' bags and other personal belongings as a punishment for students who violated the no-bag policy set for the school's event during that time. It was met with huge outrage from the netizens.