Teachers (and schools) should always treat students with integrity. Fair trade should be practiced in giving awards - after all, everything that students are doing in school are being converted into numbers, thus making them quatifiable. Students should be grade-concious, because the world measures how much they learned and how much effort they exerted to learn through grades. Grades are the basis of the awards and recognition after years of studying, and it would be unjust to receive an award that is more or less than what is deserved.
I watched Krisel Mallari's graduation speech and I think the real victim here is not just Krisel but all the students who are educated in an institution. Krisel saw injustice and it's her right to speak against it. Her speech was not a whine as what some people described it, it was a cry against something wrong. She raised a mirror to an educational system.. and by extension, a political landscpae - that is flawed and suspect. Judging from the comments online, she's given many disinfranchized citizens a platform to tell their stories which continue to sting and hurt them years later.
And as of her father who has been central to the story, if he was really behind it, well, I salute himfor teaching his daughter to fight a good fight. The gift he has given her is a backbone. The power of trusting her voice and pursuing fairness, even when the truth is ugly and she risk criticism and unpopularity.
I agree that medals and awards do not define a person. Having none of them do not make anyone inferior than the rest. However, Krisel did not "fail". Even the byline of this article is already accusing judgement on her. As said, she went through the proper channels yet they silenced her. If the school only accepted their "failure", it would not have come to this. The occasion might not be the proper venue for letting her voice out but what if previously, she exhausted all efforts and yet the school did not not budge an inch of space or time to accommodate her? If anything, the school pushed her to do this. For all we know, Krisel is not the first student the school did this too. There might have been more but were "silenced".
Some people said that its was improper of Krisel for bumping off the valedictorian.. seeking also the valedictorian rights as a student.
IF, nd that's a big IF... they read the complete speech of Krisel, she was not criticizing or bitter with anybody (or with the valedictorian herself). She was criticizing the process. A process where there were cheating. We don't even know if it's the school, a teacher or a set of teacher, or the valedictorian cheated. All we are sure of ws there were cheating in some process and Krisel does not want to be a party to that cheating.
Krisel saw injustice and it's her right to speak against it. Her speech was not a whine as what some people described it, it was a cry against something wrong. She dreamed and wanted to be the best, and she did all she could to be the best. She might have been the best, and if her allegations of unfairness and injustice were true, what her teachers and school did was a partial murder - they killed her dream.
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© March 2015
J.Bree
