Portuguese Parliament calls on Brazilian to debate rising violence in schools

The articles written by the PÚBLICO Brasil team are written in the variant of the Portuguese language used in Brazil.

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The Education and Science Committee of the Assembly of the Republic will debate, this Tuesday (26/02), at 2 pm, a petition presented by Brazilian activist Juliet Cristino, from the Committee of Immigrants of Portugal, which calls for urgent measures to curb violence in the country's schools. Data released by the Public Security Police (PSP), based on the Safe School program, indicate that, in the 2023/2024 school year, 4,107 episodes of violence among children and adolescents were recorded , 7.4% more than in the previous period. Most of the cases (1,346) were physical assaults. The PSP also reports that 39 weapons were found with the students — an increase of 11.4% —, of which five were firearms and 30 were bladed weapons.

“These are very worrying figures that deserve our full attention, parents and authorities,” says Juliet, mother of two children, one aged 2 and the other aged 8. She emphasizes that she decided to collect signatures on a petition after being informed about a series of incidents that had occurred in schools, including stabbings. “I put myself in the shoes of the mothers of boys and girls who were victims of violence. It is a great pain,” she adds. The activist also remembers mothers who had their children killed in attacks at schools, which are very common in the United States. “These are scenes that we cannot forget and that move us to seek solutions,” she emphasizes.

The Brazilian woman made four requests in her petition: 24-hour policing in schools; video cameras so that parents can monitor their children in real time at school; security cameras inside and outside schools; and traffic signals 30 meters away from pedestrian crossings in schools to prevent accidents. “These are simple measures, but they are extremely important. We need to protect our children and ensure that schools are safe places for them,” says the activist, who dismisses hate speech that violence is related to nationality.

For Juliet, it is necessary to act in prevention, which is not the case with the Safe Schools program, from the PSP, “which only arrives when the facts have already occurred”. In her opinion, effective policing in schools commands respect, not only by preventing violence between students , but also by preventing theft of school equipment, such as computers. “What we are demanding is safety for everyone, including teachers, since many of them have also been victims of aggression, from students and parents”, she emphasizes.

Ministry support

Congresswoman Patrícia Gilvaz, coordinator of the Liberal Initiative party in the Education and Science Committee, was chosen as the rapporteur for the petition, which gathered 365 signatures. The parliamentarians asked the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the School Council (CE), the National Association of Directors of Public Schools and Groups (ANDAEP) and the National Confederation of Parents' Associations (CONFAP) to take positions on the Brazilian's demands.

By the time this edition went to press, only the Ministry of Internal Affairs had responded , reinforcing its support for more police presence in schools, the installation of traffic signs near school crosswalks and the adoption of surveillance cameras, as long as the Data Protection Law is respected. “We will see how the debate in the Assembly of the Republic will go and what will follow after it. We have to mobilize. The Portuguese Government usually listens when society demands it”, he states.

Juliet was the author of two other very important petitions. One resulted in changes to the Nationality Law, which included the waiting time for immigrants to obtain a residence permit when calculating the five-year period for applications for Portuguese citizenship. “The law still needs to be regulated,” she emphasizes. The other initiated the Government’s proposal that resulted in the exchange of residence permits for citizens of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), a process that began this week.