EVELYN CHUA-QUA, petitioner, vs. HON. JACOBO C. CLAVE, and TAY TUNG HIGH SCHOOL, INC., respondents, GR No. 49549 August 30, 1990

 What happened?

Evelyn Chua is a school teacher employed at a private learning institute, (Tay Yung High School). She was the class adviser of sixth grade where Bobby Qua enrolled. During that time, Evelyn is already thirty (30), while Bobby Qua is only sixteen (16) years of age.  In that school, it was its policy of the school to extent remedial instruction to its students, Bobby Qua was imparted to such instruction in school by Evelyn Chua.  In the course thereof, the couple fell in love and subsequently they got married. Of course, after the consent and advise to the marriage was given by Bobby’s mother.

Thereafter, the school represented by its Executive President, without conducting any formal hearing terminated the employment contract of Evelyn Chua on the ground that she is defying all standards of decency, recklessly took advantage of her position as school teacher, lured a Grade VI boy under her advisory, and that she stayed alone with Bobby Qua in the classroom after school hours when everybody had gone home, with one door allegedly locked and the other slightly open.

The school further alleged that to preserve the respect of the community toward the teachers and the school. It argues that as a school teacher who exercises substitute parental authority over her pupils inside the school campus, Evelyn had moral ascendancy over Bobby Qua and, therefore, she must not abuse such authority and respect extended to her. Thus, Evelyn Chua committed immoral and misconduct which warrant her termination.

Issue:    Whether or not Evelyn Chua is legally terminated from her Employment?

Held:     We are of the considered view that the determination of the legality of the dismissal hinges on the issue of whether or not there is substantial evidence to prove that the antecedent facts which culminated in the marriage between petitioner and her student constitute immorality and/or grave misconduct. To constitute immorality, the circumstances of each particular case must be holistically considered and evaluated in the light of prevailing norms of conduct and the applicable law.

With the finding that there is no substantial evidence of the imputed immoral acts, it follows that the alleged violation of the Code of Ethics governing school teachers would have no basis. Private respondent utterly failed to show that petitioner took advantage of her position to court her student. 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. But, definitely, yielding to this gentle and universal emotion is not to be so casually equated with immorality. The deviation of the circumstances of their marriage from the usual societal pattern cannot be considered as a defiance of contemporary social mores.

It would seem quite obvious that the avowed policy of the school in rearing and educating children is being unnecessarily bannered to justify the dismissal of petitioner. The charge against petitioner not having been substantiated, we declare her dismissal as unwarranted and illegal.