Golden Heritage Polytechnic College in Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental in southern Philippines has gone viral for issuing a ban on school romance between its students in a bid to minimize teenage pregnancies that often result to female students dropping out of school – but while the ban itself had stirred the online community, netizens are also laughing at the “loophole” they found in the order.
The school announced the ban in a huge tarpaulin outside the campus:
The announcement received different reactions on social media for while there are those who agree that banning “love affairs” and relationships will help minimize, even stop, teenage pregnancies, many believe that banning school romance is going beyond the students’ rights. After all, many argued that they have also gone through romance as teenagers and have finished their studies without getting pregnant or impregnating their girlfriends.
But while the debate continues between these two factions, there are also those who couldn’t help but point out the loophole wherein the school bans only the relationship between female and male students.
By specifically putting that on their tarpaulin, they had essentially announced that relationships between the same gender are actually not banned. Of course, that probably holds true considering that in same-sex relationships, neither of the partners will get pregnant unless they have other partners or choose to undergo certain procedures (such as in vitro fertilization).
Since the ban specifically covered relationships between students, some netizens cheekily pointed out that student-teacher relationships aren’t banned in the school; though such is a different issue if the student is still a minor!