Therefore when students misbehave

outside the campus and the misconduct

complained of directly affects the
offenders status as a suitable member
of that community, there is no reason
why schools may not impose
disciplinary sanctions on him.

Now, the MORPHE (Section 102)

provides that authority to discipline
students outside the campus and
beyond school hours when
Where the school policies or
regulations were violated; and
Where the misconduct involves or
affects a students status or the
good name and reputation of the
school.

STUDENT DISCIPLINE

Imposition of Disciplinary Action

Section 134, RM, Sec. 104, MORPHE

And Sec. 133, TVET Manual
XXX School officials and academic
personnel shall have the right to impose
appropriate and reasonable disciplinary
measures for minor offenses xxx
provided, that no cruel or physically
harmful punishment shall be imposed
xxx.

NOTE:
Only Administrators and Academic
Personnel (Teachers) may impose the
SANCTIONS NOT Non-Academic.

Section 132. Authority to Promulgate School Rules.

Promulgate rules and regulations

shall be effective as of the date of their
promulgation, unless, otherwise
specified.
Must be clearly specified and defined
in writing and made available to the
students, or their parents or
guardians.

Questions :
What if PARENTS of students commit
misconduct INSIDE school campus?
Can school IMPOSE appropriate
penalties?

Answer :
Yes. Parents are members of school
community (Sec. 6. BP 232). As such, the
Supreme Court declared
xxx the right to establish and enforce
reasonable rules and regulations (in school)
extends as well to parents xxx as parents are
under a social and moral (if not legal)
obligation individually and collectively to
assist and cooperate with the schools.(Yap
Chin Fah, et al. vs CA, Dec 12, 1989)

Major/ Serious Offenses

Section 135, RMRPS, Sec. 105
MORPHE and Sec. 134, TVET provide-- when the offense committed is
serious xxx the school head shall cause
the filing of xxx administrative action
against the erring xxx student.

NOTE :
Only school administration/head shall
initiate disciplinary action and
authorize imposition of
penalty/sanction.

Authorized Penalty
MORPHE, Section 106 (Sec. 136,
RMRPS and Sec. 135, TVET) provides-- Suspension;
Non-readmission
Exclusion, and
Expulsion

Common characteristics of the sanctions

They are for grave offenses;

They may be imposed by school head/
administration only,
They deny/deprive the students right
to continued receipt of quality
education; and
They may be imposed only after
compliance with DUE PROCESS

DUE PROCESS

Section 135, RMRPS, Sec. 105, MORPHE and Sec. 134. TVET Manual---

No disciplinary sanction shall be

applied xxx except for cause xxx and
after due process shall have been
observed xxx.

Two (2) Basic Requirements :

(a)Substanial Due Process- that is,
there must be CAUSE
(b)Procedural Due Processcompliance with process of Notice
and Hearing

Substantial Due Process

Requires that disciplinary Rules shall
contain enumeration of specific offenses
and penalties. Student shall be charged
only for a cause as defined in the
printed rules and regulations of the
school or the Manuals.

A written code of discipline contains an

enumeration of specific offenses and
their corresponding penalties

Questions:
What if the misconduct is not defined
and penalized by written school rules,
may the student still be
administratively charged for said act or
omission?

Answer:
A students liability shall NOT be
confined to the enumeration because
some may be generally worded to
encompass a number of related wrong
doings (Sec. 103. MORPHE)

Defends on the Type of Offense

Committed
Two (20 types of offenses:
a. Generally accepted acts and/or
omission that are subject to disciplinary
action and imposition of sanctions;
b. Acts and/ or omission which by certain
school rule of conduct and standard of
morality are subject to disciplinary
action and imposition of sanctions.

For the student to be disciplinary

charged for said offense the first need
not be expressed in the printed school
rules and regulations. The latter need to
be defined and penalized

Procedural Due Process

In Diosdado Guzman vs. National
University, Supreme Court dictated the
minimum requirements of DUE
PROCESS
1. Student informed in writing of nature
and cause of accusation
2. Student shall answer charges, with
assistance of counsel;

3. Student shall be informed of

evidence against him.
4. Student shall have the right to
adduce evidence.
5. Evidence must be considered by the
school authority to hear and decide the
case.

NOTE:
Sec. 137, RMRPS
Summary Proceedings
xxx procedures for disciplinary action
against a student shall be summary in
nature. The student shall be assisted in
the proceedings by his/her parent (s)
and/ or by counsel

Sec. 139, RMRPS

Appeal
xxx decision xxx may be appealed to
the Division School Superintendents
within 15 days from receipt of Appeal.

In Section 105 of the MORPHE, minimum

requirement of due process in tertiary
education shall be
1. Student be informed and required to
answer if still MINOR, parent/guardian
shall be furnished a copy;
2. If student denies or refutes charges, factfinding shall be constituted;
3. Student shall have right to counsel of his
OWN CHOICE,
4. Student shall have right to LISTEN to,
examine evidence, ask clarificatory
questions, and to present evidence.

5. Fact-finding must consider pieces of

evidence presented;
6. Student to be informed in writing of
decision; and
7. Punishment, if guilty, must be
commensurate with the nature and
gravity of the offense.

In asserting RIGHT to DUE PROCESS, it would be

WRONG to insist on DUE PROCESS requirement
enumerated in Ang Tibay vs CIR, the Supreme Court
ruled in Ateneo de Manila University, et al. vs Capulong
corollary to the (students) contention of denial of due
process is their argument that it is the Ang Tibay case not
the Guzman case which is applicable xxx xxx the Guzman
case is more apropos xxx since the latter deals specifically
with minimum standards to be satisfied in the imposition
of disciplinary sanctions in academic institutions xxx.

MYTH:
Notice of change must be drawn with the
precision of criminal complaint,
FACT:
ADMU vs. Capulong-Disciplinary case in school
xxx is not subject to rigorous requirements of
criminal due process particularly with respect to
specification of the charge involved. Xxx
Accordingly, disciplinary charges against a
student need not to be drawn with the precision
of a criminal information or complaint.

MYTH:
That Representation of Legal Counsel is a
MUST and school, if student in unable to
get or afford one, shall secure one for him.
FACT:
It is enough for the school to merely
inform the student of his right to assisted
by the lawyer, and is NOT obliged to
secure one for him. The absence of the
lawyer shall not invalidate proceedings.

Some institutions permit student

respondents to have counsel but specify
or limit choice ONLY from list provided
by the school, who are usually members
of school community. In Grosman vs.
University of Rhode Island, the practice
has been upheld

MYTH:
The student respondent or his counsel must be
accorded the right to cross-examination of
witnesses againts the student
FACT:
In ADMU vs. Capulong
Granting that they were denied (crossexamination) oppurtunity, the same may be said to
detract from the observance of due process, for
disciplinary cases involving students need NOT
NECESSARILY include the RIGHT to crossexamination.

Even if MORPHE expressly recognizes right

xxx to listen to, and examine evidence
presented against him, to ask clarificatory
questions xxxSTUDENT still not entitled
as a right to cross- examine.
BECAUSE,
Clarificatory questions may be xxx through
the fact-finding committee xxx that would
not involve actual confrontation xxx.

NOTE:
Section 155, RMBE
Rights of Students
Ensures the students right to
CONFRONT and CROSS-EXAMINE
witnesses against him in disciplinary
cases.

Contrary to the SC declaritions in the

cases of Alcuaz vs. PSBA; ADMU vs.
Capulong; DLSU vs. CA and UP Board
of Rregents VS. Celine that the right of
students to due process in disciplinary
cases DOES NOT NECESSARILY
INCLUDE the RIGHT TO CROSSEXAMINATION whether or not a serious
offense is involved.

Questions:
What is the effect if a
penalty( susoension, exclusion or
expulsion) is imposed by the school
without observing due process?
Answer:
IT SHALL BE INVALID.

In Babelo Berina, et al. vs. Philippine

Maritime Institute, the Supreme
Court said
It is obvious from the expulsion and
suspension orders that the petitioners
were denied due process xxx. For the
orders are bereft of the sides of the
petitioners. Hence, the legal
presumptions of regularity cannot be
availed in the instant case.

In the leading case of Guzman,

the Supreme Court said
This Court is therefore constrained,
as in Berina vs. Philippine Maritime
Institute, to declare illegal this act of
respondents of imposing sanctions on
students without due investigation.

Suggested DepEd Rules on the

Imposition of Suspension/Expulsion
1) For first and other offenses, which are
not very serious:
a) Suspension not to exceed three
(3)
days may be justified; and
b) Parents must be informed.
2) For a persistent offender or one guilty
of a serious offense:
a) Suspension for not more than
one (1) year may be imposed; and

b) The school, however, should forward

to the Regional Office (DepED)
concerned within ten (10) days from
termination of the investigation.
3) Expulsion
a) Only by the Secretary of
Education

RIGHT TO SPEECH, EXPRESSION,

OR THE PRESS
( or Conduct of Student Assemblies)
Article III, Section 4, 1987 Constitution No law shall be passed abridging the
freedom of speech, of expression, or the
press or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble and petition the
government for redress of grievances.

Section 9 (7)
7. The right to free expression of
opinions and suggestions and to
effective channels of communication
with appropriate academic and
administrative bodies of the school xxx.

Hence
A school cannot even invoke academic
freedom as the basis for punishing
students for their legitimate exercise of
their freedom of speech, expression or
press within the school ground.

But
WRONG for students to assert certain forms
of communication which are NOT considered
Protected Expression or Protected Speech
These are
a) Obscene
b) Defamatory
c) Fighting Words
d) Certain forms of criminal speech and
invasion of privacy

The right of students to free speech

in school premises, x x x, is not
absolute. The right to free speech
must always be applied in the light
of the special characteristics of the
school environment.

ALSO
WRONG for students to
x x x hold a demonstration against
the university during which they barricated
and blockaded the entrances and exits of the
school x x x.
If physical force, threat, intimidation, and
destruction were employed to disrupt the
classes and if the demonstration was far from
peaceful- such expression may be curtailed.

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

It is the policy of the State to uphold

and protect the freedom of the press
even at the campus level x x x.
In fact RA 7079 provides--Once a student publication is
established, the student editorial board
are free to determine its own policies
and manage publication funds.

Section 7 of RA 7079 or the Campus

Journalism Act provides that
A member of the publication staff
must maintain his or her status as
student in order to retain membership
in the publication staff. A student shall
not be expelled or suspended solely on
the basis of articles he or she has
written, or on the basis of the
performance of his or her duties in the
student publication.

SoCan students write

and publish articles that are
considered by the
administration as obscene,
vulgar, indecent, gross,
sexually explicit and
devoid of all moral values?

In the poem V irgen Writes Erotic,the

last verse said: At zenith I pull it out
and find myself alone in this fantasy.
opposite the page was a drawing of a
man asleep and dreaming of a naked
woman lying in his bed on her buttocks
with her head up.

Malas ang Tatlo

Na picture mo na ba
Nong magkatabi tayong dalawa
Sa pantatluhang sofaIkaw, the legitimate asawa
At ako, biro mo, ang kerida?
Tapos, tumabi siya, shit!
Kumpleto na:
Ikaw, ako at siya
Kulang na lang, kamera.