Bogotá's Secretary of Education confirmed that there are 163 complaints of sexual abuse in schools: “We believe children and parents”

Recently, an event raised alarm bells in the capital, an alleged case of sexual abuse against a child under 5 years of age in the town of Bosa that ended with strong protests, burned tires and the vandalized facade of the IE New Chile, where the aberrant case apparently took place.

The Secretary of Education of Bogotá, Edna Bonilla, referred to the event on the radio station La W and commented that both the alleged case of sexual violence that was reported since March 18, and the vandalism of 22 and 23 as a protest in the IE New Chile, affect students as they 'harm education in general'. He also pointed out that the alleged teacher accused has already been removed from his post and from some kind of educational activity with boys and girls in the institution.

On the situation of child safety, Secretary Bonilla told the radio: “We as a district administration, as the Ministry of Education, have asked the Prosecutor's Office to accompany all these processes, fortunately on Friday (March 18), we had a meeting between the mayor and the Attorney General of the Nation and established a series of commitments, the Secretariat has already submitted documented 163 cases of alleged cases of sexual violence”.

The official indicated that these types of abominable crimes against children did not grow in recent times, but now there has been a greater tendency to denounce them: “Since 2020 we have been working on these cases, in fact we have repeatedly asked the authorities to act in a timely manner, to act in a manner joint. It is not a fact that it has been presented only for a couple of weeks, no, sexual violence is a fact that occurs throughout society and that at the moment we are having a greater number of reports of sexual violence”.

Finally, he stressed the importance of not being silent and ignoring complaints, but on the contrary, paying attention to them and always seeking authorities to act immediately: “We have called for cases of sexual abuse to be reported, we believe children, parents, we are accompanying them, report so that the authorities can act.”

On the other hand, the Ministry of Education handed over to the Attorney General's Office on Wednesday, March 23, information on 163 cases of sexual violence registered in district educational institutions, allegedly committed by teachers attached to the entity.

The entity clarified in a press release that there are 154 active disciplinary proceedings with a cut-off as of March 1; however, the base submitted to the Prosecutor's Office was updated on March 18, which includes complaints received in the third month of the year, thus involving a total of 163 cases.

The judicial body, for its part, will deliver the first results of the investigation within a period of 30 days. Added to this is the appointment of six new prosecutors and the same number of investigators who will be available in the District's courthouses, located in: Ciudad Bolivar, Suba and Barrios Unidos.

This initiative was announced on March 19 by Prosecutor Francisco Barbosa, after meeting with Mayor Claudia López. According to the official, the new investigators and prosecutors will give greater attention to this type of inquiry regardless of the locality in which it originates.

“Preventing and speeding up cases of sexual violence in schools is a priority,” said Edna Bonilla, Secretary of Education. The official stressed that the internal control team is being strengthened, the recruitment of 200 additional teaching counselors and the work they have done with various entities, “since preventing this type of violence is the work of the whole society,” she added.

KEEP READING: