Best thing I've read so far, by UP-Diliman's former Dean Raul C. Pangalangan.
Schools as Facebook patrol | Inquirer Opinion
Schools as Facebook patrol
It’s less about whether to be libertines or prudes, or how lenient and how severe. That will merely drag us into the amorphous debate on obscenity, and lead us to say, “I know it when I see it,” in the famous words of US Justice Potter Stewart. Rather, it’s about who gets to make the call, and whether we can carve out spheres in our lives where we can be free to be ourselves without having to worry about prying eyes.
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One, concededly, the school has the power to adopt its own institutional mission. If St. Theresa’s says that its goal is to advance the moral formation of its wards in strict Catholic tradition, it will be acting within its own academic freedom. We can split hairs here—the Constitution guarantees academic freedom only to “institutions of higher learning,” which means
colleges and universities, and not high schools. But I don’t see how that distinction matters here. Any school worth its license to operate should be respected in its school mission.
Also, the parents accept that mission when they enroll their children and entrust them to the school. The school’s mission is therefore binding upon the parents in two ways: legislatively, as rules adopted by the school, and contractually, as an agreement to which the parents consent on registration day.
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Two, however, under the Family Code, the school exercises “special parental authority” only during school activities. The mother says that the bikini shot was taken at a “family or private social activity [that] does not involve the school’s supervision and control” and “was not connected with the school curriculum.”
The school cannot install itself as moral watchdog over a student’s entire life.
Three, the school actually intruded into the student’s privacy. The photograph was apparently posted on the girl’s Facebook account whose privacy settings allowed access only to her friends. The school officials were not her Facebook friends, and were kibitzers into the child’s zone of privacy. Indeed, if indeed the girl’s privacy settings gave access only to her friends, the girl’s Facebook posts are technically hearsay vis-à-vis the school officials because they were not privy to her posts.
Of the three arguments, the third is most empowering. In the first two, the high school student is merely the passive object as two powers, the school vis-à-vis the parent, collide over the power to run her life. In the third, she is the active subject, able to express herself among her friends, able to pick and choose who those friends are, and yes, able to choose how she wants to dress during her friend’s birthday party.
Finally, it is not fatal to the mother’s case that apparently she had earlier taken part in the disciplinary case. The school’s legal counsel insists that due process was observed because the “parents were present when the child signed the probation.” Is counsel saying that fundamental rights can be waived? Not everything can be bargained away by contract. Can a Muslim student be forced to bargain away his religion in exchange for enrolling in a Catholic school? Come on. This silly argument must be put to rest once and for all.
Last weekend, I visited a church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I used to hear Mass the last time I taught there. I saw these words on the Sunday missal: “No matter what your present status in the Catholic Church; No matter what your current … marital situation; No matter what your personal history, age, background, race, etc.; No matter what your own self-image; You are invited, welcomed, accepted, loved and respected here at St. Peter Parish.” Given the unnecessary ruckus over the innocuous Facebook photograph, will we live to see the day when the Filipino Catholic can be as open and as welcoming? Is the Filipino Catholic capable of being truly catholic?
Re: St. Theresa’s College sued!
Originally Posted by z3robeLow
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