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Students entering Saint Mary’s School of Sagada are oriented with the school’s rules and regulations. These rules and regulations are emphasized at the beginning of the school year which sets what is to be expected from everyone.
A week after the school year began, reports of suspensions circulated around the school. Six new students were punished due to major school violations of smoking, drinking liquor, and cutting themselves. The weeks went by, the same students were apprehended and more students went under school suspensions and isolations. Most of the cases involved playing computer games and bullying. By the end of the first quarter, a lot of suspensions and isolations including three “re-installment” cases had been recorded.
Most of these violations led to punishment of cleaning the school campus; cutting the grass and helping in the canteen, etc. Nothing harsher nor harder.
We could still recall an old schoolmate who went under a long process of disciplinary conferences during his stay here in SMS. He went through a lot of suspensions, isolations, principal talks and almost all kinds of ways to discipline. He has done tough community service; almost every one of us went away from him. We became witnesses not only of his struggle for self redemption, but also of the severity of the school punishments implemented.
When it comes to school punishments, the school should be firm, strict, and consistent. As a group who observed and faced the hardship of suspensions, doing community service and hard labors here in school, meeting humiliation and disgrace because of our violations, we find it fair enough to say that the sentences of those who will break the rules increase in a higher degree. They will have to labor real hard. We believe that students, being able to experience the real consequence of disciplinary actions would improve and will have a wider thinking when it comes to being a more responsible student.
On the other hand, the school has developed a new way of handling school suspensions in which not only the school heads, but also the students, the faculty and staff are involved when it comes to giving punishments and monitoring suspended students.
This has been done during the three “re-installment” cases that happened in school. Re-installment is when a student with three consecutive violation incidents are expelled from school but was accepted again. The expelled student could appeal to the tribunal composed of the school head, faculty and staff, and representatives of the student body. If the expelled student was able to present a concrete plan, showed that he is sorry and humbled himself, showed that he made a total change, and convinced the tribunal, he is given a last chance. A last chance that once the student committed just a minor violation, he is sure to be expelled and will never be accepted again. Now this reinstalled student will be monitored and supervised by the whole school.
Everyone should learn their lessons. Saint Mary’s School of Sagada is about discipline. We mean business here. We are after the welfare not only for the image of the school but of every student. #
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