A comprehensive school safety bill is moving toward sponsorship this week, with its author arguing that the country needs more than tightened security to protect students and teachers from harm.
Sen. Bam Aquino, who leads the Senate Committee on Basic Education, plans to formally sponsor Senate Bill 2390 on Wednesday. Known as the Comprehensive School Safety Act, the measure would build a national structure for anticipating and handling violence and similar dangers on campuses.
Aquino stressed that lawmakers should look past physical safeguards alone and confront the digital, behavioral and community conditions that put learners and staff at risk.
“There is a lot that needs to be done, and I’m hoping we can get support for the School Safety Act. Let’s put all the necessary and good ideas in there and let’s move it forward,” he said in the bill’s manifestation.
The design of the proposal starts with a framework set nationally, but obligates each locality to craft its own version, drawing in schools, agencies of government and surrounding communities. Aquino described the value of treating the problem collectively.
“It’s good that we start addressing this as a community, discussing, developing this framework, understanding your protocols and making it clearer to every sector of the community what their role is,” he said.
Individual schools would carry specific duties under the legislation. Each would have to draw up a safety plan and refresh it every year, addressing emergency steps, hotlines, physical safety installations, protections in the digital space, activities held off campus, participation from the community and ongoing monitoring.
The renewed legislative attention follows two lethal attacks tied to students in recent months. On August 18, a shooting at the Junior High School campus of Ateneo de Zamboanga University claimed the lives of two students. One was a Grade 9 student accused of staging the attack before taking his own life, an episode that authorities said was broadcast live on social media.
That killing arrived roughly two months after a similar deadly assault at a school in Tacloban City, which had already stirred worries about violence among young people and the vulnerability of campuses.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has directed authorities to conduct a full inquiry into both attacks.
