Child discipline

Childhood has its unique nightmares. Once in third grade, I thought of running away from home, to avoid going to school the next day.

The reason? My teacher had scolded me that day for being talkative in class, and had promised to penalize me. The punishment? The next day, I would have to sit with the boys who were grouped together on one side of our classroom, instead of with the girls.

In fourth grade, girls and boys would no longer be put in the same class in our Catholic school. That was the grade during which the girls who reached puberty early began flirting and wouldn’t have minded spending the entire school day with boys.

But in third grade, it was such a public humiliation for a girl to be made to sit beside a boy in the back of the class. I was petrified but couldn’t tell my family that I was being punished by the teacher for being daldal. So I thought of running away. But I got only as far as the neighborhood panaderia in the street corner before I decided to return home.

The teacher probably thought it was a harmless punishment. It didn’t entail physical pain, and she didn’t shout at me. But the psychological torment was awful for an eight-year-old.

So I welcome the bill, principally authored by Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera Dy, seeking to discourage teachers and parents from resorting to “humiliating” punishment.

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The outcry against her bill, however, is coming not from teachers, but from parents who fear that the country could go the way of the United States, where kids threaten to report their parents to the police even for simple scolding.

Dy clarifies that it’s not an anti-palo or anti-spanking bill – the term used by mass media for brevity to describe the measure. Instead House Bill 8239 is titled “an act promoting positive and nonviolent discipline, protecting children from physical, humiliating or degrading acts as a form of punishment…”

Facing “The Chiefs” last Friday on Cignal TV’s One News channel, Dy stressed that the bill doesn’t criminalize corporal punishment, and it won’t put parents or teachers in jail. Instead, as the title of the measure implies, it would encourage parents, teachers and guardians to find non-violent alternatives to disciplining children.

This hasn’t calmed the controversy over the proposed measure, with Dy telling us she has been receiving critical comments by text and on social media.

HB 8239 defines “physical, humiliating or degrading acts” as “any form of punishment or discipline in which physical force is used and intended to cause pain or discomfort or any nonphysical act that causes children to feel belittled, denigrated, threatened, or ridiculed.”

My punishment in third grade certainly falls under this category. My classmates teetered when I showed up in school the next day and endured my punishment. The class b**** asked me why I was lining up with the girls to enter the classroom. So yes, I felt belittled and ridiculed, and yes, the punishment caused me discomfort.

But isn’t discomfort intrinsic to punishment?

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Critics of HB 8239 in fact point out that its definition of punishment is so “overbroad” and intrusive. A provision specifying that there must be intent to harm may also be used as a loophole; abusers can say that they never intended to hurt a child. How is “intent” determined?

The critics include legal professionals, who point out that there are already enough laws to protect children from physical, psychological, sexual and emotional violence and other forms of abuse as well as neglect.

Lawyer Mel Sta. Maria, dean of the Far Eastern University Institute of Law, cites the Family Code of the Philippines, Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Act of 1992, and Presidential Decree 603 or the Child and Youth Welfare Code, passed way back in December 1974, which created the Council for the Welfare of Children. There is also the tough law passed in 2004 covering domestic violence against women and children, RA 9262.

And unlike the positive discipline bill, the laws carry penalties including imprisonment for violators.

Sta. Maria told The Chiefs that all those existing laws rendered HB 8239 “superfluous.”

He also warned that some of the proposed provisions in the bill are intrusive and could violate the constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy, with barangay officials allowed to enter private homes and tell parents how to discipline their children.

Where does one draw the line, he asked, in defining an act that causes “discomfort” to a child? Does making the child sit in a corner constitute corporal punishment? If the child is bratty or pasaway, will scolding him merit calling barangay officials?

Sta. Maria noted that the Family Code follows Judeo-Christian concepts, which do not expressly prohibit corporal punishment, but only its “excessive” use.

The existing laws give parents the benefit of the doubt in disciplining their children, Sta. Maria noted, while penalizing the “excessive” application of physical force, verbal and psychological abuse and related criminal offenses. HB 8239, he said, intrudes on parental prerogatives in disciplining children.

Dy stresses that the measure aims to fill a void that is not covered by the definition of “excessive” punishment. But this is precisely the source of concern – that merely tapping the hand of your child can be construed as causing “discomfort” and trigger an SOS to the barangay.

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Our other guest on The Chiefs, Dr. Marc Eric Reyes, vice president of the Psychological Association of the Philippines, supports the idea of discouraging corporal punishment, saying it could leave lasting scars on a child that could affect behavior in adulthood.

He admitted he didn’t know that there are already numerous laws protecting the welfare of children. In any case, he finds the promotion of positive disciplining of children a good idea.

Bernadette Dy points out that HB 8239 is mainly an advocacy bill. If it ever hurdles Congress, implementing rules and regulations will still have to be worked out, to specifically define the acts covered by the law and ensure the confidentiality of cases.

Since the existing related laws are only haphazardly enforced (as in many other laws in this country), enforcement of this one, if it is ever passed, may be even worse.

Still, it’s good that HB 8239 has stirred debate over the impact of disciplinary methods on children.

After my day of sitting with the boys, I was never scolded again for being talkative, so I guess the punishment worked in that context. But it might have contributed to my being sullen and anti-social as I entered adulthood. I’m still bratty, and I hated my third grade teacher.