Violence mars school opening in ‘Gapo

OLONGAPO City – The opening of classes here Tuesday was marred by a stabbing incident at the Olongapo City National High School where a second year student was stabbed twice by a schoolmate over an old grudge.

The 16-year-old victim, Manolito A. Menes, of Tabacuhan, Barangay Sta. Rita, remains in critical condition at the James L. Gordon Memorial Hospital.

Police identified the suspect as Arjay Olayres, 17. He was charged with frustrated homicide and is now under the custody of the Olongapo City Assistance and Rehabilitation Empowerment.

Concerned parents are pointing the blame on school authorities for the frequent violence in the public school, particularly its principal Helen Agabao. They said the lax security and negligence of Agabao are causing the deterioration of order and discipline in the school.

Agabao claimed that the suspect was a school dropout who sneaked inside the campus. She also blamed the absence of police within the vicinity of the school.

But it turned out that Olayres is in the roster of the school’s enrollees for this year.

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Response from reader hbasagit

Its a sweeping statement to blame the school officials and unfair to post a news item without conducting an investigation and mar the reputation of a dedicated school Principal who has no other mission but to educate young people and develop them into responsible citizen. The author should have conducted an investigation in the school and not just base his news item from the students.

If he only contacted the school authorities , he should taken the real side of the situation. These students were dropouts and has enrolled in the same year for so many times and they are both members of a fraternity and uses the school to camouflage their identities as criminal elements of this city. We accepted them in the school because we are mandated to do so for the reason that as educators, we believe in the tenets of EFA.

They are just two (2) students who were accepted in this school together with their 7,458 school mates.If these 7,458 good students who entered the school campus on that day June 10,2008 9:00 am has stabbed each other, then its acceptable to cast the blame on the school principal and post the news item with stating among others that there are frequent violence in the school and tell the world that Olongapo City National High School is run by a neglectfull Principal.

We have been visited by Malaysian and Indonesian students and the whole Asia and Europe has given the school so much praises including the City of Olongapo for the way school officials manage the school deliver education inspite of inadequate facilities. With these OCNHS has been invited several times in these countries as their Partner School because of its outstanding school officials ,teachers and students.

To post these news item is an indication of disrespect to a school being praised and modeled internationally. We do hope that the author should investigate first before he posts news items. How about checking out this fraternity run by citizens of Olongapo City which uses the baywalk of the City Mall as the venue of their meetings? and check on the peace and order of the city before they put the blame on the school for these budding criminal elements.

Why not the police officers check on the peace and order and not just accept reports from complaints?Last friday June 13,2008,630 pm ,an incident happened at the corner of 14th and Rizal Avenue,one of our female students was abducted by a white van and tortured the girl and dropped her at the Centennial Park SBMA and was found by SBMA at around 730 pm the same day.

The poor student of ours was ABDUCTED outside the school on her way home by white van parked along a music store near the campus, should the principal be blamed for that crime committed by criminal elements in Olongapo City?.As of now it has been reported to the police,but I know it will just remain as one of those unsolved cases of abduction in the city.

ARE WE STILL SAFE IN THE CITY?

Please dig into the root cause of the problem before we blame people who are working intently with dedication in order to develop responsible citizens of Olongapo City.