Teachers at the Palmira School of Art were denounced for harassment and abuse of several students

Before the Attorney General's Office, a young student from the Ricardo Nieto Municipal Art School, EMA, in Palmira, Valle, reported the sexual harassment and abuse of which she was the victim of by a teacher at this institution. In the face of their revelations, more students joined and not only singled out the same teacher for these acts, but also other EMA officials.

The complaints generated quite a controversy in the municipality as the complaints of seven women, including a minor, reached the Prosecutor's Office, stating that teachers had wrongly touched them and carried out persecutions. They all indicated that they had not reported the facts before out of fear; in total, two teachers were singled out for sexual abuse and harassment.

After the first young woman decided to make the facts known, they all came together to hold a protest in Palmyra. However, the authorities confirmed that they only officially know the details of a single case. They also pointed out that as early as 2019, a student had been abused by a school official and the other known cases were in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

These events were rejected by the Secretary of Culture of Palmira, Alexander Camacho, who said that the municipal administration is against “all acts of gender-based violence”. But the local official also stressed that, at the moment, “we have no formal reports of sexual abuse reported about this or any other related case. However, once this situation became known, we took administrative action and communicated with the person who made the complaint.”

He added that from the Mayor's Office the route of restoration of rights was activated and, in addition, the teacher involved was removed from his post. From the Ricardo Nieto Municipal Art School, EMA, they insisted that the official they most denounced was removed from his work, since they pointed out that after the allegations were heard, stigmatization was generated for the institution.

In the coming days, the authorities will continue to handle this case; however, the students and leaders will also hold a meeting at which they will define how each case will proceed in the coming days, as some of the students fear being re-victimized. What the victims did insist on is that, in future cases of recruitment, the personnel to be hired be monitored and filtered.

This year, unfortunately, different similar cases have been reported, such as that of the students of the CEFA (Centro Formativo de Antioquia) women's school in Medellín, who publicly denounced on March 8, denounced a teacher for harassment, while in Bogotá the most notorious case has been the capture of the teacher of physical education accused of sexual harassment at Marymount College.

“The professor involved was removed from his duties and subsequently submitted his voluntary resignation; consequently, he is not linked to the institution. School is, and should always be, a safe place for everyone, and my commitment and work as an educator requires full attention to the facts. We will go to the last consequences for this,” a statement from the institution told the parents, after the allegations came to light.

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