So a part of me understands why a teacher from Cebu City would feel the need to discipline her students after finding out that they may have cheated during an exam on Feb. 9, 2023.
Her viral TikTok video clip was a scathing commentary of her two Grade 11 students who appeared to have the same answers. One correctly answered 33 of the 50 questions, while the other got 32.
The teacher seems to be particularly against cheating as she narrated in her TikTok video that she had torn the test papers of students in her other classes for not admitting to cheating when confronted.
The two students whose names were mentioned in the viral video eventually admitted to cheating, and the teacher gave them a chance to retake the test.
However, the teacher drew flak from netizens for publicly shaming the students in an online platform. Educators and parents called the teacher out for disregarding the students’ general welfare.
The teacher in question is now being investigated by the Department of Education in Central Visayas.
While in no way do I condone cheating in class and in life, I also do not condone any act of humiliation by an authority as a form of discipline.
As someone who had an experience of public humiliation by a superior in the past, I can still remember the intense feeling of anxiety that manifested in extreme physical pain. Such an experience takes time to heal psychologically and the trauma lingers for years.
The teacher has the right to discipline a student but has no right to place the student in an extremely embarrassing and life-altering situation.
Cheating can easily be corrected, but a besmirched reputation is not very easily repaired.
While it could be said that the teacher’s intention was for the best, her style of discipline is far from being righteous.
Taking the students to the principal or even discussing their faults in a private setting would have been the best course of action.
Yet in the age of social media and virality, the teacher seemed to have lost cognizance of the proper ways of disciplining her students.
While I laud her determination to teach her students the right way, I hope the teacher realizes that she has to protect the growing teens.
This viral TikTok video brings the discussion to a question: Does the end justify the means?
For me, two wrongs don’t make things right unless the end result rights two wrongs.
It means that if the end result cannot correct both faults, then it is not worth it.
In this case, the teacher humiliating her students is just as wrong as her students’ cheating, and the end result is just humiliation for both the teacher and her students.