Proposed law seeks to ban physical punishment of children

Students can attest that teachers are sometimes not the best role models. Suspected of theft in a Zamboanga City classroom in July, students of a fourth-year high school class were individually frisked by teachers in hopes of finding the stolen money. However, “Joan," 17, was made to strip thrice in a corner. Feeling humiliated, she refused to go back to school for days. Last month, a viral video showed a Palawan student walking on his knees as punishment for physically assaulting his teacher. In 2009, a teacher in Batangas City allegedly hit a student in the head for laughing at her. But students are not only at risk of physical and emotional harm in school. According to a 2005 study by Save the Children United Kingdom in the Philippines, 85% of children experience punishment at home, often as a form of discipline by parents. The same study stated that the majority (83%) of adolescent respondents were “physically maltreated" and 60% “received psychological insults and debasement." Should House Bill 4455 or “Positive and Nonviolent Discipline on Children Act" be enacted into law, parents and teachers will be discouraged from harming children, physically and emotionally, for the sake of discipline. “Pinalalabas natin na itong mga ganitong klaseng uri ng pagdidisiplina ay hindi na akma sa ngayong panahon at hindi maganda ang resulta," said Tarlac Representative Susan Yap, author of the said bill, in an interview at News to Go. Child rights advocates may be surprised that actions that could be considered assault are not seen as crimes under this law, hence no criminal penalties are prescribed. The types of punishment covered by the proposed law include but are not limited to: “1) Blows such as, but not limited to, beating, kicking, hitting, slapping, lashing to any part of a child’s body, with or without the use of an instrument such as, but not limited to, a cane, broom, stick, whip or belt; 2) Striking of the child’s face or head such being designated as the “no contact zone"; 3) Pulling hair, shaking, twisting joints, cutting or piercing skin, dragging or throwing a child; 4) Forcing a child to perform physically painful or damaging acts such as, but not limited to, holding a weight or weights for an extended period and kneeling on stones, salt or pebbles; 5) Deliberate neglect of a child’s physical needs; 6) Use of or exposure to substances that can cause discomfort or threaten the child’s health such as fire, ice, water, smoke, pepper, alcohol, dangerous chemicals such as bleach or insecticides, excrement or urine; 7) Tying up a child; 8) Imprisoning a child; 9) Verbal abuse, or assaults including intimidation or threat of bodily harm, swearing or cursing, ridiculing or denigrating the child; and 10) Making a child look or feel foolish which tends to belittle or humiliate the child in front of others" Instead, it aims to introduce “positive and nonviolent discipline" strategies such as: “1) Beat-the-Clock – a motivational technique that uses the child’s competitive nature to encourage completion of tasks on parent’s timetable; 2) Grandma’s Rule – a contractual agreement that allows a child to do what the child pleases as soon as what the parent wants has been accomplished; 3) Neutral time – taking advantage of time that is free from conflict, such as the time after a tantrum has passed and the child is calm and receptive, to teach new behavior to the child; 4) Praise – a verbal recognition of a behavior that a parent wants to reinforce; 5) Reprimand – a statement that includes a command to stop the behavior, a reason why the behavior should stop, and an alternative to the behavior; 6) Rule – a predetermined behavioral expectation that includes a stated outcome and consequence; 7) Time out – to take the child out of a situation because of inappropriate behavior, making the child face a blank wall for several minutes or until the child calms down; and 8) Responsibility Building – making a child perform age-appropriate, simple household chores." Violators of this proposed law, however, will not be subject to imprisonment, according to Rep. Yap. “This bill does not seek to criminalize parents or caregivers. It will give the state an avenue to teach more positive ways of disciplining the child," explained Yap. But the child will be taken away from the erring parent/s custody, in extreme cases, according to Yap, which will be subject to the assessment of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. HB 4455 does not entirely prohibit physical punishment, since small slaps to a child’s hands and buttocks are still allowed if it does not “cause psychological trauma," and is not severe enough to merit a complaint. “I think that’s okay, as long as in-explain mo rin sa bata kung bakit," said Yap. Currently, Senator Jinggoy Estrada’s authored counterpart of HB 4455 is pending at the Committee on Youth, Women and Family Relations. - HS, GMA News