Days ago, the incident of alleged gun threat propelled rumors, multiple sides of the story and bent narratives of people who are absent during the incident. The Ateneo administration immediately cleared out the issue by willingly defending the image of the school through an official statement of the University President, Fr. Joel E. Tabora, SJ saying, “we categorically state that there was no gun immediately involved in this incident.”

However, it is unjustifiable to forget the valid principles that may deepen our understanding of the incident: the principle of teacher’s security and the principle of delivering quality education. There is no sense of sticking to one side of the story because it only confuses oneself and affects those who still lack the knowledge of the incident.

The first principle puts emphasis on the notion that despite the all the conflicts, may it be personal or collective, one should never resort to the act of threatening because the act itself will never fix any issue, rather it will only mislead people into making irrational choices and unnecessary issues that are based on emotions but not on sufficient reasoning. It is obvious that the problems with grounding the discussions on emotions include ad hominem, misrepresentation of the information and the emergence of twisted reportings.

The second principle focuses more on the prime responsibility of the educators to sufficiently deliver what is expected from them. Any university or educational institution should also recognize that if the students are constantly complaining about their teachers’ methods and pedagogies, it establishes an urgency that there’s really something wrong in the process of teaching. The moral dilemma, moreover, stems from educators who are not willing to change their ineffective ways and methods that may probably increase the students’ inability to academically surpass their requirements and compulsory demands. Consequently, if the educator is not willing to respond to the dynamics of the learning process, the faults in the current educational system will never be fixed.

Regardless if the reports are legitimate or not, there are salient principles that should be reconsidered. For now, the focus should not center on rumors or controversies. Rather, students, teachers, and other concerned individuals should stop on looking for anything that will stir up more confusions. At the end of the day, those who hold the truth have the responsibility to uphold it and let it be the answer to any existing and emerging rumor, allegation or confusion. As what the renowned genius Albert Einstein once said, “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”