Thursday's march brought together more than five hundred students from different schools in Santiago. They were received by the Minister of Education, Marco Antonio Ávila, who promised to review the protocols to punish more strongly those who commit or participate in attacks against women students.
“If we are going to rape them” and “we could make like a pack among ourselves” are some of the phrases that students from a school in the commune of Providencia in the capital of Chile wrote in an Instagram group. The situation escalated to such an extent that the justice system had already ordered an investigation order for the police to take part, while the municipality, in charge of the administrative management of the educational establishment, provided a background to clarify what happened.
President Gabriel Boric said on his twitter account: “Listening and seeking solutions together with students and educational communities will be our way of working,” he said.
The mayor of Providencia, Evelyn Matthei, met with the affected students and publicly condemned the events. “I am indignant, I had to read several of the screenshots that the students made and they are disgusting, they really left me with a huge anger. Today we had to act fast,” he said.
The mayor also suspended classes for one day and seven students involved and reported that the municipality filed a complaint with the Eastern Metropolitan Prosecutor's Office for investigation.
Although allegations of sexual harassment and abuse started from educational establishments in Providencia, more than eight schools, in the communes of Santiago, Providencia and Ñuñoa joined the demonstrations that took to the streets of the city, which ended in front of the presidential palace, La Moneda, where representatives schoolchildren submitted a petition about gender violence.
Education Minister Marco Antonio Ávila received the schoolgirls to hear their complaints and said that “as a Ministry we are going to promote non-sexist education, we are going to review current regulations (...) and how we can promote it. We are going to propose national days for communities to maintain notions of what non-sexist education means,” said the minister.
The Ministry of Women and Gender Equity also referred to the facts and Minister Antonia Orellana reported that, “we are super concerned and we will continue to follow up on this situation and we will support the Minister of Education in the reformulation of the protocols in the process of advancing non-sexist education.”
Along the same lines, the Minister for Women called on adults in the educational communities to take care of those who denounce themselves, “it is a very complex process that can mark life trajectories, therefore, it is very important that we take care of it. We would like to ask them not to share images or videos in which the students are seen, nor to disseminate personal information about the victims or whistleblowers,” he concluded.
During the week of protests that took place in the streets of the capital, students from different communes came out to denounce gender-based violence in their educational establishments, among their peers and also teachers.
Denunciation in Ñuñoa
Through a statement from the municipality of Ñuñoa, in the eastern part of the capital, located eight kilometers from the city center, a complaint was made against teachers of the República de Argentina Professional Technical School, which is located two blocks from the municipality itself.
“Through an email addressed to the mayor's office, a teacher at the school accuses two of his colleagues of sexual abuse and harassment against high school students,” the statement read.
The mayor of Ñuñoa Emilia Ríos announced that all measures would be taken for an administrative summary, proceeding with all the necessary measures, including a possible complaint was reported. “As a communal government, we reaffirm with you our commitment to all gender-based violence and we will use all the tools for the prevention, early detection and eradication of any type of abuse in the educational communities as a whole. They are not alone,” Rios reported.
The mayor also met with professors from the Professional Technical College Republic of Argentina, to discuss the situation regarding the complaint that came to her by email.
On Friday, March 25, the first student march was called, by the Confederation of Students of Chile (CONFECH), the same coalition that President Gabriel Boric was a spokesperson in 2011. The protest is to demand an increase in the food grant and seeks to raise the amount from $39.68 to $59.52 per month.
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