DepEd lifts suspension of bloggers

The Department of Education (DepEd) issued yesterday a stay on the implementation of a 10-day suspension meted on four students of the Quezon City Science High School (QCSHS) who criticized the school principal and her policies in their personal blogs.

Lawyer Franklin Sunga, Education Undersecretary for Legal Affairs, said DepEd National Capital Region director Teresita Domalanta lifted the suspension order pending an investigation into the appeal filed by parents of two of the suspended students.

“The implementation is stayed until the appeal is resolved,” Sunga told The STAR.

The suspension order, issued by QCSHS principal Zenaida Sadsad and approved by DepEd Quezon City division superintendent Dr. Victoria Fuentes, would have taken effect on Monday.

Sunga said the investigation will look into the concern raised by the parents that the suspension did not observe “due process” and that there was “lack of jurisdiction” in the suspension.

Rex San Diego, the former adviser of the award-winning Quezon City Science High School campus papers and mentor of the four suspended students, said the suspension of his former wards was unfair.

An alumni of QCSHS and long-time adviser of the “The Banyuhay” and “The Electron,” San Diego also questioned the methods used by Sadsad to intrude on the students’ personal blogs, which were supposed to be open to viewing only by their “friends” in their www.multiply.com account.

San Diego also said the four students were not the ones who posted comments like “Sadsad must die.”

He also said there were “more than a hundred” students who had blogs in their multiply.com account that carried critiques of Sadsad’s administration.

“These students take education seriously. So they really speak out when they see things being done by the administration that they think will not improve things,” San Diego told The STAR.    – Rainier Allan Ronda