In an exclusive interview with The Benildean, Vice President for Lasallian Mission and Student Life, Ms. Nicky Templo-Perez, debunked the Reddit posts about incidents that supposedly took place in The Atrium @ Benilde.
Cleanliness and hygiene in The Atrium
According to Ms. Templo-Perez, anything out of the ordinary to happen within the campus is reported through the Office of the Vice President for Administration.
“I asked our Vice President for Administration, Mr. Butch Tecson, if his office received reports regarding [the aforementioned incidents in the Reddit posts]. When we checked, no such reports came out.”
Meanwhile, Built Environment Coordinator of Benilde, Mr. Mitchelle Osa, assured in an interview that there are no encountered and reported incidents by the maintenance staffers of what was listed in the Reddit posts.
According to Kevin, a housekeeping staff stationed at The Atrium, they take on an 8-hour shift checking bathrooms every 20 minutes on each floor and there was no instance in the past week that they encountered said incidents from the Reddit post.
Ms. Templo-Perez explained, “There have been reports with regard to leaks in the bathroom, the bidet leaks [...] So we're aware of that, and we are trying, and our housekeeping does its best to manage those leaks”
“The College, through our Office of the Vice President for Administration, is actively looking into repairing what needs to be repaired, replacing what needs to be replaced and ensuring that our drinking water from our fountains are safe,” she added.
On students with special needs
According to the Reddit post on Oct. 4, there are seemingly nine freshmen students with special needs who are causing disruptive behavior.
In an interview with The Benildean, the Center for Inclusive Education (CIE) Director, Mr. Martin Romero, addressed the claims and said, “We did not receive any complaints or referrals from [Center for Restorative Discipline] CRD about our students who are causing [aforementioned incidents in the Reddit post]. So I'm not really sure if those who were mentioned there are our students talaga kasi we did not receive any report.”
“It's unfortunate that pinin sa kanila kung ano man ‘yung nandun sa post na ‘yun. We're hopeful that we focus on the facts [...] Don't spread the hate or don't hate our students or, you know, people with disabilities or [with] special needs in general—regardless if they're students here in Benilde or not,” Mr. Romero added.
“We accept students with special learning needs and with psycho-emotional needs, who we know can succeed in college, whether that is academic or behavior. Bago pa [siya] pumasok, mino-monitor na [siya] or ini-interview,” Ms. Templo-Perez explained.
She added, “Those students na alam namin na hindi kakayanin ‘yung stress of the daily grind and the academic rigor of the College, and if it will cause them to act out, we will not accept. We're not irresponsible. We won't give false hope to students [that are] not prepared for college or that we might not have the resources to assist in succeeding in college.”
They also discussed a reply by the same Reddit poster that claims a professor was requested to accompany a special needs student to masturbate in the bathroom.
“We never ever ask our professors to do such things. We have approved reasonable accommodations here like extended time, ‘yung appropriate seating, [or] makakuha lang sila ng materials ahead of time para makapag-prepare,” Mr. Romero clarified.
Ms. Templo-Perez also added, “We don't ask for those kinds of accommodations. If a student will need that kind of accommodation, the first thing that we will ask is, wait, are you ready for college?”
Reporting incidents
With this, Ms. Templo-Perez advises students to report incidents that take place on the campus.
“If it's a concern regarding cleanliness, whether it's inside the bathroom or even in the hallways, [...] lumapit sa housekeeping. Kung wala kang makitang housekeeping, lapit sa security and let them know.”
“If the concern is behavior [and it] is urgent, approach security right away. If the concern is something [na] hindi life and death, you can actually approach our discipline officers. They are here in the Atrium campus, they're on the mezzanine floor. Very accessible.”
She then left a message to the anonymous poster on Reddit, “Whoever wrote that post, if you really know that you are telling the truth, please come to me. I am [on] the 3rd floor of the Atrium [@ Benilde]—which means I know whatever is happening [in] this building—come to me [and] let’s talk about this.”
The social media network Reddit is a forum-based platform to create discussions within communities and allows the users to remain anonymous. Information shared on the site is subject to verification and fact checking.
