Not as easy now with camera phones: Students caught cutting classes

Going over the school fence to cut classes is no longer as easy as it used to be before the spread of camera phones and closed-circuit television.
 

A video posted on community site WhenInManila.com caught two students climbing a tree to get over the wall of a high school, then climbing down a post.

 

Not minding the risk to their lives, they then joined two of their schoolmates waiting below - and then to a nearby mall, GMA News' Chino Gaston reported on "24 Oras" Wednesday.

 

Worse, the mall is near both the school and the Department of Education's regional office in Metro Manila.

 

Rosalina Cabanas, the guidance counselor of San Francisco High School, admitted this happens often, especially when the security guard is allowing several people to enter the school premises.

 

"Madalas mangyari yan. Pag ang security guard namin medyo maraming pinapapasok sa gate saka sila sasalisi," she said.

 

She said all the school could do is to call the concerned students' parents and ask them to convince their children they could figure in an accident.

 

"Kapag talagang nahuli namin, na-identify ang bata, pinapatawag ang magulang, kinakausap, sinasabihan namin ang anak nila ay kausapin kasi baka madisgrasya," she said.

 

The DepEd forbids the cutting of classes, a practice where students leave classes to go to moviehouses, malls or even computer shops.

 

Despite this, many students are still aware of the importance of going to school.

 

Many of them said attending classes allows them to learn much and to do well in exams. —Joel Locsin/NB, GMA News