The school has spoken up about the matter.
In a statement released on Wednesday, December 18, Colegio San Agustin-Makati through its legal representation said that they find it “unfortunate that an incident among minor students was blown out in the public.”
The school then immediately denied “at the outset” that a bullying incident happened, telling that what occurred was a “situation where students were discussing about Christmas party preparations.”
CSA also assured that they handling the matter with “caution, circumspect, and confidentiality” as students involved are minor students.
They also encouraged Yasmien Kurdi, who they referred to in the statement as Mrs. Soldevilla, “to cooperate with the school” so that the matters will be addressed through its internal mechanisms in place.
“We also caution Mrs. Soldevilla to refrain from sharing information about the minor students as this tends to put them in bad light, embarrassment, and even ridicule, not only in the CSA but in the eyes of the public,” the administration wrote.
“While we assume good faith in the public actions and statement of Mrs. Soldevilla, these may have unintended consequences on the students involved including her own daughter,” it added.
To end, the school said that it’s environment is a place where constant interaction between students might result to various emotions, such as joy, frustration, and anger.
Hence, CSA said that the “undue branding of bullying of these interactions might result to disruptions in students’ learning and growth” and reiterated their request for “circumspection and trust” that the school is handling the sutuation with seriousness.
Colegio San Agustin-Makati’s statement comes a day before Yasmien Kurdi’s scheduled audience with the Department of Education’s leader, Secretary Sonny Angara, on Thursday, December 19.
The said meeting will be a discussion that would focus on bullying and how it could be addressed.
At the moment, Kurdi has not yet issued a comment on the statement made by CSA.