WHAT HAPPENS when children start believing the lies and violent messages they hear repeatedly from adults?
With the recent violence involving young people inside schools, we should force ourselves to confront this uncomfortable question.
Reports about online conversations allegedly involving the minors in the tragic shooting at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City revealed a disturbing concern. They apparently believed that children can commit crimes and simply escape responsibility because of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act.
Sadly, many Filipinos have been made to believe the same thing.
For years, Republic Act No. 9344 has been reduced to one false statement:
“Kapag bata, walang kulong at walang parusa.”
Simple, easy to remember, but completely wrong.
This false narrative did not spread by accident. Many vloggers, social media personalities, and political influencers have acted like legal experts while giving incomplete and misleading explanations of the law.
Why? Because anger gets views, outrage creates followers, and fear strengthens narratives.
Senator Kiko Pangilinan, principal author of RA 9344, became a convenient target of these attacks. Instead of having an honest discussion on juvenile justice, many chose to attack personalities and spread the false claim that the law allows children to commit crimes without consequences.
The law says otherwise.
RA 9344 does not remove accountability.
Children who commit offenses still face consequences. The law provides intervention, rehabilitation, counseling, supervision, and in serious cases, placement in youth facilities.
The purpose is not to excuse wrongdoing.
It is to correct a child before society loses that child completely.
But fake news is only part of the problem.
We must also confront how violence has slowly become normal in our society.
For years, many have consumed messages that celebrate cruelty such as cheering when people call for suspects to be killed, supporting threats against those with different views, laughing at insults, and accepting leaders and personalities who curse and dehumanize others.
When adults repeatedly show that violence is an acceptable answer, should we be surprised when children begin to believe it?
Children listen.
They watch.
They learn.
A society that celebrates anger cannot expect children to choose kindness. A society that glorifies revenge cannot be shocked when young people struggle to understand compassion and accountability.
This does not excuse violence. Wrong actions have consequences.
But prevention requires honesty.
We cannot condemn violence inside classrooms while tolerating a culture of violence outside.
We cannot teach children respect while adults proudly model hatred.
Laws can be reviewed. Security can be strengthened. Policies can be improved.
But healing begins with truth.
Because fake news does not only change what people believe.
Violent words do not simply disappear.
Together, they shape minds, influence actions, and create the society our children inherit.
Before asking why violence entered our classrooms, maybe we should first ask:
What lessons have we been teaching them outside the classrooms?
