Olongapo High School Teacher Convicted for Sexual Harrassment
July 10, 2019 ·
Olongapo High School Teacher Convicted for Sexual Harrassment
Corskie San Jose, then a teacher at the Olongapo City National High School (OCNHS) was found by the regional director of the Department of Education (DepEd) guilty of sexual harassment and is ordered suspended for six months.
The Decision came almost two years after the case was filed by a Grade 7 student assisted by his father. In his complaint-affidavit. The minor-victim said Corskie San Jose instructed him to meet the teacher in the English teacher’s nook after class hours on July 3, 2017. There, Corskie San Jose asked the minor-victim personal questions with sexual innuendos, gave him one hundred pesos, placed his hand on the lap of the minor-victim and touched the minor-victim’s genitals. Shocked, the minor-victim immediately removed the teacher’s hand on his lap. Before allowing the minor-victim to leave the nook, Corskie San Jose continued to ask the minor-victim questions with sexual overtones and told him not to tell anyone about what happened.
Corskie San Jose vehemently denied the accusations against him. However, in its Decision dated June 25, 209 the regional director of the DepEd gave more credence to the minor-victim and said “there is no improper motive for the student-victim to fabricate such a story.” He also said that “the sequence of events . . . disclosed the complainant’s (the minor-vicitm’s) contemporaneous and subsequent conduct in reponse to the offensive act.”
On the other hand, the regional director imposed on Corskie San Jose the maximum penalty for sexual harassment classified as less grave ofense because “he is a public school teacher responsible for the education and molding of the character of the youth and “his act in sexually assaulting one who is entrusted to his care aggravates the offense.”
Asked how he feels about the Decision, the father of the victim said he is happy that the Decision favored his son but he is apprehensive about the possibility that his son, who is now in Grade 9, will again see Corskie San Jose after the teacher would have served his suspension.
The Preda Foundation, on the other hand, calls on the DepEd to educate its teachers on and fully implement DepEd Order No. 40, Series of 2012 otherwise known as the DepEd Child Protection Policy. It also hopes that the DepEd, both in the Schools Division of Olongapo City and the Regional Office, will act with dispatch on still pending cases most specifically the case against Franco Aranas.
