AMID the wave of school shootings that have gripped parts of Southeast Asia the past weeks, barangay executives and civic society in Cagayan de Oro City have committed to help protect schools here.
In Patag, chairman Eric Abaday is set to sign an executive order for strict implementation of the 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. curfew in his jurisdiction to be enforced by the barangay peacekeeping action team (BPAT).
The curfew ordinance was passed as early as 1994 but its implementation citywide is more or less sporadic.
Abaday will also be assigning BPAT members to protect Patag’s six basic education schools – Camp Evangelista Elementary School, Bulua National High School Patag Annex, Diamond Evangelical School, Summer Hill School Foundation, Happy Land International School and Patag early childhood care and development center.
In the latest school shooting incident, a 16-year-old student shot and killed a ninth grader and then himself at the elite Ateneo de Zamboanga University basic education campus only last Tuesday (August 18).
Two weeks prior, a 14-year-old pupil shot and killed seven students in a suburb near Bangkok, Thailand. And in June, two students who are all minors shot and killed three of their colleagues in Tacloban City, this country.
School shootings used to be a rarity outside mainland United States but it is widely believed that extremism via online games has ignited the phenomenon elsewhere.
For one thing, Abaday zeroed in on the so-called nihilism feature of such games.
Taken as is, nihilism is the philosophical idea that life, existence and the universe have no inherent meaning, purpose or objective value.
But the same term has appeared persistently in such games as Roblox and Mobile Legends. These games are released by competing companies yet the same exact feature – nihilism – has kept on popping up.
Within the context in online gaming, nihilism narratives explicitly tell players that their choices in-game will change nothing or lead to the same tragic end.
“We want to teach these children that these nihilistic experiences are there within the game only. They do not transcend in real life,” Abaday said.
With this, the barangay chairman is actively pushing for guidance counselors in all the five schools located in Patag to be proactive and conduct periodic one-on-one sessions with each student so they could be assessed emotionally.
There is also a similar solution being pushed by a prominent local civic leader.
Former councilor and current Xavier University Alumni Association president George Goking Sr. believes parents have a deeper responsibility in molding their children from violence.
Goking said parents-teachers association (PTA) in each public and private school in Cagayan de Oro City are collecting fees upon enrollment and a portion of this can be tapped for mental well being programs at the campus.
“Dili lang kay party-party lang ang nabal-an sa mga PTA. Dapat mag-set aside sila to take care of their students in their own schools,” he said.
In August 18, officers of the Xavier University Alumni Association led by Goking met with the institution’s president Mars Tan and offered their full solidarity and support to the whole academic community.
“We are all concerned with our alma mater. If the university management will tap us on how we can help, we are committed,” Goking said.
On the same day, the university issued a statement announcing the full implementation of enhanced security protocols in all its campuses.
