A row is brewing in Catalonia over a pilot programme to deploy police officers in 13 secondary schools in the region with a track record of violence. Many teachers and parents are against the plan, but the regional government considers it necessary.
The Catalan government’s initiative to introduce Mossos d’Esquadra officers into schools launched back in April of this year, seeking to establish direct collaboration between schools and security forces, focused on prevention, support and intervention to guarantee a safe school environment.
The plan was to be carried out in schools in Barcelona, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Vic, Alta Ribargorça-Val d’Aran and Tàrrega, as well as in two specific centres in El Prat de Llobregat and Sabadell, the Department of Education had confirmed.
The measure, however, sparked controversy among teachers, families and students due to its impact on the educational environment and was recently almost unanimously rejected, bringing the programme to a standstill.
Only the ASPEC union, which is the largest in secondary education, was in favour of the move, citing the need to protect professionals in contexts where it claimed seven out of ten teachers have been victims of some type of aggression.
This academic year alone, more than 5,300 potential situations of violence have been recorded in Catalan schools, including cases of bullying, assaults and episodes of discrimination, which generated the need for some type of protection.
Originally, the initiative consisted of permanently placing unarmed plainclothes officers in schools, with the aim of mediating in cases of violence and devising prevention programmes.
Teachers, parents and students, however, have had issue with this method, saying that it’s causing mistrust within the system.
One of the reasons for this is that two Mossos d’Esquadra police officers tried to enter a Ustec meeting at the Pau Claris high school in Barcelona last month and posed as teachers.
Another major reason for the rejection of the plan is that the regional Catalan government has just cut the number of social integration professionals in schools from 420 to 300 and is now allocating those resources to deploy police officers instead.
Interior Minister Núria Parlon defended the plan saying that it responds to a request from the Department of Education to reinforce the safety and well-being of the entire educational community and to those concerned about the levels of violence in schools.
In an interview with Catalunya Ràdio she said: “We have to see if we’re really going to resume it in the future, once the conflict has been resolved, and see if it makes sense to do so. We believe it does”.
Over the last three school years, a total of 12,693 cases of bullying have been reported to the Register of Violence against Students (REVA), and this number continues to rise year after year.
Out of the 5,331 potential situations of violence in Catalan institutions this school year, the most frequent is bullying, with 1,718 incidents, followed by child abuse and gender-based violence perpetrated by adults.
In total there were 720 cases of child abuse, 573 potential incidents of assault with or without weapons, 395 incidents of gender-based violence perpetrated by an adult, 377 potential incidents of gender-based violence among students, 165 incidents of hate and discrimination among students, and 12 incidents of hate and discrimination perpetrated by an adult.
There were also 715 cases categorised as ‘Other’ and 649 cases with no assigned category.
The Director General of Inclusive Education and Student Welfare, Susana Tarapiella, says that the data from REVA “demonstrates that violence impacts society and, at the same time, schools are an inherent part of that society”.
She believes that this data shows an increase in the detection of potential cases of violence in educational centres each year.
