The increasing number of crimes effected by teenagers is alarming. Notice the glaring headlines in different tabloids and broadsheets. “Grandson murders Grandmother.” “15-year old boy Engage in Drug Pushing.” “Sophomore Students Involve in Gangrape.”
Why are these situations proliferating? Why do teenagers get involved in these kinds of crime? R. A 10630 is otherwise known as Juvenile Justice System Delinquency Law enacted and passed during the time of the late President Corazon C. Aquino with the purpose of an unwavering commitment to provide a productive and enabling environment for Filipino children to grow safely and become useful citizens of the country covering children from 15 years old and not below 18 years of age.
These children are under the so called middle childhood, which is classified as developmental period. The grand theorist Freud and Piaget saw middle childhood as a plateau in development, a time when children consolidated the gains they made during the rapid growth of the preschool period, and when they prepared for the dramatic changes of adolescence. Erik Erickson, however, who proposed the “eight stages of man” stressed the importance of middle childhood as a time when children move from home into wider social contexts that strongly influence their development.
According to this law, children who are in conflict with the law and are more than 15 but not below 18 will be referred to a 24-hour child-caring institution, established, funded and managed by the local government and licensed and or accredited non government organizations providing short-term residential care for children in conflict with the law; one example is the Bahay Pag-asa. This law explained that this will be an effective intervention to serious crimes although had always been the bone of contention.
Teachers must be aware of children with emotional behavioral disorders. They are characterized primarily by behavior that falls significantly beyond the norms of their cultural and age group on two dimensions: externalizing, example is they argue excessively, get out of their seats every now and then, hit or fight, and internalizing. Both patterns of abnormal behavior have adverse effects on children’s academic achievement and social relationships. Children who enter adolescence with a history of aggressive behavior stand a very good chance of dropping out of school, being arrested, abusing drugs and alcohol, having marginalized adult lives, and dying young Walker et al, (19990. Students with emotional and behavioral disorders are 13.3 times more likely to be arrested during their school careers than other students are. On the other hand, 58% are arrested within five years of leaving high school.
If this will be the case, children caught in this situation will be more or less put in intervention program like the Bahay Pag-asa. Most probably, it will take time before these children will be healed of their experience. But through the help of parents, the intervention program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and teachers, the Philippine National Police (PNP) the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), Department Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Corrections, the social and behavioral skills of children will be improved and they will be productive citizens of the country.
References:
Jennings, J.J., Colombia University, Teachers’ Effects on Social Behavioral Skills in Early Elementary Schools. April, 2008
R. A. 10630-Juvenile Delinquency System Law – Website Source Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in Children W. L. Heward. Pearson Allan Bacon Prentice Hall (2010)
By: Rizal D. Canta | Teacher III | Bagac National High School Parang, Bagac | Bataan
