THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers opposed the Philippine National Police’s plan to deploy police forces in the vicinity of colleges and universities as more schools resume face-to-face classes in January 2022.

Citing the public outrage on the incident of an armed policeman inside a classroom in Pangasinan, the group said that the policemen “are more of a threat than anything else.”

The Department of Education has reiterated its policy against the presence of armed persons in schools because of the incident.

Instead of police presence, ACT called for the deployment of health workers in schools and communities participating in limited in-classroom learning.

“The PNP has a bloody track record of being violators of basic rights and freedoms, abusive to power, and incognizant of laws they’re supposed to be enforcing. This will just add to the already daunting tasks of safely reopening schools. What we need are nurses, health workers to not only ensure the implementation of health protocols, but more so to provide medical support and assistance to students and teachers in need,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

The group said that their opposition to police presence in schools is grounded on previous offenses like the killing of Grade 11 student Kian delos Santos and the “Red October Plot,” the illegal police profiling of public school teachers in 2019, among others.

“Now more than ever, we are faced with an enormous challenge of creating an enabling environment in schools for learning. That involves ensuring a safe and democratic space for the free flow of ideas, for dissent, for criticisms. All these go against the thrust of the Duterte regime as implemented by its police and military forces. As such, we as educators must stand fiercely against any further intervention from state forces in our schools. We’re still catching up from the grave learning losses after nearly two years of school lockdown, we don’t need another threat in our midst,” Basilio said.

The group said that hiring more school nurses is crucial.

This can be done through the budgeting of items for nurses in state colleges and universities and provision of aid to private higher education institutions in need of help.

“So we are calling on legislators to heed our budgetary demands, especially as the 2022 budget is now being deliberated by the bicameral conference committee. We’ve suffered enough from the Duterte admin’s militaristic response to the people’s needs amid the pandemic. We need better health and other social services. We, the people, deserve a better chance to recuperate from the dire impacts of the still ongoing health and socio-economic crises. Fund the needs of safe school reopening and blended learning,” Basilio said.