The Aguascalientes Education Institute (IEA) and UNESCO are developing a diagnosis in different schools to identify the causes of school violence among students. With this, we also seek to recognize the origins of violence within the neighborhoods and the families of the students.
The director of the IEA, Lorena Martínez Rodríguez, pointed out that the objective of this analysis is to combat incidents such as bullying. This would be added to other actions aimed at reducing other problems, such as sexual harassment and violence against students or even against teachers.
“We are carrying out a diagnosis with UNESCO to be able to identify the main causes of intra-school violence. Obviously it is a very broad study that prioritizes identifying the main characteristics of school violence, community violence and domestic violence, which is one of the violences that is most reflected in our schools.”
The official recalled that, a few months ago, a new attention protocol was implemented in the schools of Aguascalientes so that complaints from students and teachers are attended to in a shorter period of time, with the support of the public ministry.
“Today, all of these cases are immediately channeled to the Public Ministry specialized in education, and that has allowed us, in less than three or four days, to resolve the cases, either through a precautionary measure issued by the public ministry, a protection measure for minors or teachers, and the resolution is being so fast that we have put a stop to the violence.”
He noted that, so far, four sanctions have been applied against those responsible for sexual harassment or violence in schools. Some of these punishments were applied through criminal law and others required the dismissal of the workers.
Schools and violence against women
In Aguascalientes, 35.2 percent of women over 15 years of age have experienced situations of violence at school throughout their lives, according to the National Survey on the Dynamics of Relationships in Households 2021, from Inegi.
The survey details that this situation affected 196,447 women. Another 20,063 students indicated that they had suffered some violent act in the last 12 months of their school life, which is equivalent to 21.1 percent.
41.9 percent of the victims identified a classmate as the aggressor, while 21.1 percent attributed these acts to a teacher.
Furthermore, it is indicated that 72.6 percent of the attacks occurred inside the school, while other incidents occurred in public places near the classrooms (parks, streets or gardens) or in a private home.
At the national level, Aguascalientes is positioned in fifth place for having the highest percentage of female students violated within educational establishments, only behind Querétaro, the State of Mexico, Colima and Mexico City.
