Given the outrage caused throughout the country by cases of bullying and violence in classrooms, schools will have to adjust their coexistence manuals so that teachers and all educational staff are able to identify when there are situations that damage the school environment.
We explain how these changes will be implemented, which were the Government’s response to a string of bad news in the classroom.
Among the latest cases, there was one of a minor who was injured in a testicle at the Villamaría school, in the department of Caldas; a girl who was the victim of racial discrimination in front of her classmates in Medellín; and other young women from the Menorah Technical District College, in Bogotá, who asked for the resignation of their rector due to acts of discrimination that victimized them.
This week, even, a new case of violence was added in Bogotá: it was reported that a 13-year-old minor from a school in the southeast of the capital had been sexually abused by three classmates.
To respond to these cases, in the last meeting that the Minister of Education, María Victoria Ángulo, had with the Secretaries of Education of the country, the need to make some adjustments to the internal regulations of the schools was put on the table.
Will the manuals change?
Lina María Saldarriaga, director of the Aulas en Paz program, explained that since Law 1620 of 2013 was enacted, schools have had difficulties putting it into practice, something that the Ministry of Education is seeking to solve.
Among other things, it is sought that the coexistence manuals apply what is already in the law: that there are alternatives to resolve conflicts peacefully. For example, bring together two students who were at odds, promote dialogue and formulate solutions for the case. And if there are sanctions, however, they must be proportional.
“Strengthening the coexistence manuals is not giving more instructions to punish,” Saldarriaga assured. “Schools of all strata and all cities are seeing these cases of bullying repeatedly: but the cases are presented and there is no clarity on what to do. How do I get dads involved? How is handling with children? What criteria can I use to determine the seriousness of a case?” Saldarriaga noted.
How to identify violence?
Law 1620 of 2013 contemplates three types of violence that can occur in classrooms.
The first type includes all those that have to do with sporadic and punctual conflicts, which, although they affect the school environment, do not cause damage to the physical or mental health of the students.
In the second type of situations is bullying, cyberbullying or mild cases of copying exams. To differentiate them, the coexistence committees must take into account that they are repeated behaviors, and that they cause physical or mental damage to the victims.
Finally, there are all the actions that are typified as crimes and that require investigations and actions by entities such as the Prosecutor’s Office or the Police.
Teacher training
The Ministry of Education announced that it will begin training 3,000 people – 2,000 teachers and 1,000 school counselors – to strengthen school coexistence.
Saldarriaga explained that these programs are necessary so that educational personnel know how to act in these situations.
“Bullying is very underground. You hardly see it, but that’s not from now, it’s from a lifetime. We need detection tools to be used, but also reaction tools, such as the coexistence committees of each institution,” Saldarriaga said.
And he pointed out that it is also essential that there be clarity on how to prevent the exercise of violence in the classroom, which would save students and teachers several headaches.
“You have to take a little step back and understand, it is that children and families in general had a bad time during the pandemic. We need to re-strengthen skills to remember how to live together,” Saldarriaga said.
