Grade 7 student rapes Grade 3 student; victim’s mother to sue Cainta school for ‘negligence’
A Grade 7 male student has allegedly raped a Grade 3 female student at the latter’s house, with prior sexual abuse incidents already going on for over a month at their school in Cainta, Rizal.
In an interview with The EdLines last month, the mother of the victim, Kay (not her real name), said the 13-year-old accused was a classmate of her eldest son at Faith Christian School (FCS) and was someone she has known to be “very courteous.”
On February 23, the accused slept together with all three of Kay’s children in a single bedroom. “It was the first time I allowed a sleepover at our place kasi dati palagi sila sa ibang bahay so pinayagan ko sila [because they’d always have their sleepover at their other friends’ house so I allowed them] this once,” Kay said.
When Kay’s eldest left the room to shower, the accused allegedly took that chance to prey on his classmate’s nine-year-old sister.
“This is when the first incident with private-to-private [part] contact happened,” Kay said.
In a brief moment, the victim found a window to escape and took the chance to run to her mother’s room where she pleaded to have the accused leave because he was “touching” her and “it hurts a lot,” as the victim’s written confession showed to The EdLines would later read.
Kay gathered the accused and his parents at a nearby barangay office where Kay filed a blotter report. At the office, Kay said the accused confessed to penetrating her daughter’s private part at their home and touching her private part as early as January in different places within the school premises.
The victim elaborated that she had been touched in the canteen, hallway, preschool department and library. Kay said some teachers had already noticed that the accused was sneaking out of his classes to drop by her daughter’s classroom in another building just to visit her but no one had reported these instances.
Under Republic Act 8353 or the Anti-Rape Law of 1997, rape is punishable as a crime. Lewd acts that do not amount to rape, such as touching of private parts, are also recognized as a crime under the Revised Penal Code.
In criminal cases involving minors, Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 exempts children 15 years of age and below from any criminal liability but not from civil liability. Minors are also subjected to an intervention program.
The accused minor is currently going through intervention and has been urged by the school to immediately continue his education through homeschooling.
School denies in-campus incident
Months after the incident, the mother said she chose to break her silence after the school issued a statement that “invalidated” her daughter’s claims. Kay was referring to a March 6-dated letter in which the school denied that the “untoward incident” happened on campus and during school hours. It did not clarify if it was referring to the rape incident or the lews acts.
“Based on the in-campus CCTV footages, we could not find any instance when said students were together inside the school premises,” read the FCS letter issued to parents and signed by members of the school board.
While the school had offered to pay for Kay’s medical expenses for her daughter, she had felt that the school had “blocked them out” by “basically call[ing] her [daughter] a liar to save the school’s image” and attempting to “bury” the controversy by holding a series of events at school following the incident.
At present, Kay is demanding access to all the CCTV footage from the school but her request has been denied even when she was in the company of the Philippine National Police as the school cited data privacy reasons. She said the school has admitted to not being able to go through all the videos from their CCTV due to the sheer volume.
Sought for comment on Kay’s claims, the school administrator said they will issue a statement “in due time.”
Kay said she has filed a formal complaint at the Department of Education’s (DepEd) Region IV-A CALABARZON Office which has initiated the investigation on the school’s possible negligence. The EdLines has sought DepEd CALABARZON for confirmation but the office has yet to respond.
Kay also hopes to secure a lawyer from the Public Attorney’s Office soon to explore possible charges against the accused and the school.
