The Family Court Judge Marcela Trillini ordered the province’s Ministry of Education to carry out pending works and complete repairs at Primary School 295 in Bariloche, when responding to an appeal for protection promoted by parents with the impetus of the three defenders of minors in the city.
The repairs that must be made are on the roofs of the educational establishment due to leaks that have been registered for a long time. The case had already reached Justice years ago and last September the legal action was declared abstract because the tasks were in progress. However, the construction company that was in charge of the works terminated the contract in December and everything was paralyzed.
The parents of the girls and boys who attend that school, located on 2 de Agosto Street, between Sáenz Peña and Genghini, and which has a wide coverage radius in populous neighborhoods in the southern area of Bariloche, once again requested intervention judicial due to the poor conditions in which their children attend classes. They presented the defenders with a «situation of helplessness, abandonment and danger» at school.
The judge upheld the new protection filed in May and ordered Education to Complete the pending works within a period of 30 calendar days“under warning of incurring the illicit acts of violation of the duties of a public official and judicial disobedience and of evaluating the application of the sanctions for which I am authorized by law.”
In the sentence that Trillini signed yesterday, the judge considered that “The fundamental human right to education is involved” which governs the Provincial Constitution as “essential for every inhabitant and inalienable obligation of the state.”
She pointed out that the ministry “violates this right” by “the delay in repairing the building problems of the establishment.” For this reason, the judge said that “a concrete and serious damage is being done that can only be eventually repaired by resorting to this urgent and expeditious means” such as the appeal for protection filed by the defenders of minors in Bariloche.
In the court file, Education reported that the company Constructora Norpatagonia SRL terminated the contract on December 22 And given this situation, a new administrative procedure was initiated to complete the repairs, promising that at the end of June they would finish the project for the call for bids. But no estimated deadlines were set and that point was objected to in the opinion of the minor defenders who asked the judge for the sentence.
The judge highlighted the expressions of the minor defenders who indicated that “the administrative times and the lack of momentum that arises from the constancy of the pertinent procedurethey attempt to overcome the violation of rights that has been occurring for some time and that requires an immediate solution that is far removed from the vicissitudes of bureaucracy.”
He also emphasized that these building failures are exacerbated in cities like Bariloche where low temperatures and frequent rainfall require that the school have “efficient heating systems and protect the spaces by avoiding leaks, especially when it is an educational establishment attended by boys, girls and adolescents.”
Trillini pointed out that Education is responsible for “the delay in resolving a long-standing problem that directly affects the entire educational community” and questioned that there is no “rush” to carry out the repairs.
