COTABATO CITY — Psychologists from the Education and Social Welfare departments in Soccsksargen are cooperating in counseling 40 students apprehended for online threats to attack schools in separate operations in Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato provinces in the past 10 days.
South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo S. Tamayo, Jr. told reporters on Wednesday that 20 of the 40 students tagged in threatening to attack classmates or harm teachers inside school campuses are from different towns in their province.
At least 20 other students in different towns in Sultan Kudarat are also being counseled now after they threatened to attack classmates and mentors in different schools in the province.
Mr. Tamayo, presiding chairperson of the multi-sector Regional Peace and Order Council, covering four cities and four provinces in Soccsksargen, said the 40 elementary pupils and high school students are being treated as children needing psychological interventions, not as typical law offenders.
“All social, psychological interventions are being done for them to heal. We want them to become responsible adults,” Mr. Tamayo said.
Three students were killed while six others were wounded on Sept. 18 in a shooting rampage by a student in the campus of the Banga National High School in Banga town in South Cotabato.
One of the three fatalities in the incident is the attacker, who shot himself in the head after attacking school mates inside a classroom on their campus. — John Felix M. Unson
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