TEACHER – STUDENT RELATIONSHIP
An exceptional landmark case wherein the Supreme Court ruled in favor of love.
A 30-year-old teacher married her 16-year-old student when marriage between minors was still legal. As a result, the teacher was terminated from employment “for abusive and unethical conduct unbecoming of a dignified school teacher.”
While it is true that a having an extra-marital affair with another married person is a serious misconduct, it doesn’t follow that a teacher falling in love with and marrying her student is an immoral act.
“If the two eventually fell in love, despite the disparity in their ages and academic levels, this only lends substance to the truism that the heart has reasons of its own which reason does not know. ” – Justice Florenz Regalado
Private respondent Tay Tung High School, Inc. was ordered to pay teacher-petitioner backwages equivalent to three (3) years, without any deduction or qualification, and separation pay in the amount of one (1) month for every year of service.
CHUA-QUA vs TAY TUNG HIGH SCHOOL, INC.
G.R. No. 49549 August 30, 1990