Until November 15, the primary and secondary schools of La Rioja will be able to request the talks that are given within the Master Plan for School Coexistence, promoted by the Ministry of the Interior and which aims to respond in a coordinated way to the issues related to the safety of students, as well as to improve their knowledge about police resources for the prevention of crime and protection of victims.
The Government delegate in La Rioja, Beatriz Arraiz Nalda, has presented the new call for the Plan, accompanied by the director of the High Educational Inspection Area, Emilia Fernández Núñez.
Arraiz Nalda recalled that the Government Delegation in La Rioja, through the coordination of the High Educational Inspection Area and the collaboration of the Superior Police Headquarters of La Rioja, the X Civil Guard Area and the Coordination Unit against Violence against Women, has given a series of informative talks on prevention in schools in La Rioja with great success over recent years.
In this way, and as in previous editions, during the first half of next year, talks will be given to secondary school students that focus on four thematic areas: internet risks; bullying and hate crimes; drugs, alcohol and vandalism; and gender, sexual and domestic violence.
In addition, there is a fifth thematic possibility that brings together contents from the four previous focuses aimed at teachers and families.
Regarding Primary, the talks will only be given to the teachers and Ampas who request it. For the students of these primary schools, it is expected that they will attend only to attend special cases due to specific problems detected.
As a novelty in this course, the General Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergencies of the Ministry of the Interior has launched a complementary module of Civil Protection talks aimed at the school community. “As this is a new offer, we want to obtain a demand forecast, in order to adapt for later years the training of specialized teachers,” he said. The issues that are expected to be addressed with the school community are how to respond to three emergency situations, such as earthquakes, forest fires and floods.
Course balance 2023-2024
Before detailing the data of the School Coexistence Plan for the 2023-2024 academic year, Arraiz Nalda explained that it was considered important to include in the balance sheet the training activity carried out by the Traffic Headquarters in La Rioja, focused on raising awareness among young people of the importance of road safety. “These traffic sessions are very well received and awaken the consciousness of many young people by being taught by people who were like them and who, as a result of an accident, changed their lives,” he said.
For her part, the director of the High Educational Inspection Area, Emilia Fernández Núñez, explained that during the academic year 2023-2024 the high figures of talks given in the educational centers of La Rioja were maintained, with a total of 568 talks attended by 15,214 members of the educational community, of them.
For subjects that were addressed with the students, the risks of the internet were the most demanded talks (223), followed by school bullying and hate crimes (125), drugs, alcohol and vandalism (82), gender and domestic violence (56) and road safety (49). Another 33 talks were addressed to parents and teachers.
In addition, last year, as a novelty, in April, with the collaboration of FAPA and CONCAPA, I Educational Day for families “Internet risks” aimed at families in Rioja Alta (Haro) Baja (Arnedo) and media (Logroño), in which more than 200 families participated.
As Fernández Núñez points out, the main objective of the Master Plan for Coexistence and Improvement of Safety in Educational Centers and their Environments is to coordinate between the educational community and the Security Forces and Bodies in order to provide the youngest students with the necessary knowledge and tools, in order to prevent or detect risk situations that may affect their safety. In short, the formation of young people in respect for rights and freedoms, and in the values of dignity and equality.
Faced with data such as that about 10% of students suffer bullying and almost half do not act before a victim, as recently pointed out by a study carried out by the ANAR Foundation and Mutua Madrileña, he has stressed that “we need as a society that educational centers, as decision-making elements that intervene in the learning and development of children and adolescents, are, without a doubt, a safe space”.
In addition, he added that we must be vigilant and prevent behaviors in youth and adolescence of normalization of violent and humiliating behaviors as part of the development of their sexuality. “Data such as that ‘sexual assaults double in the last seven years in La Rioja’ or that ‘25% of the LGTBI+ community between 18 and 24 years of age has suffered acts of hatred in their school stage’ or that ‘20% of cyberbullying situations are already done through Artificial Intelligence’ are aspects that make us more deeply committed to this public service,” he said.
Therefore, these talks aim to sensitize and guide students about those behaviors that can lead to criminal or violent actions, promoting the values of responsibility, equality, respect and coexistence.
At the same time, they are provided with tools for conflict prevention and to avoid the risk of becoming victims of certain crimes such as sexual assault, bullying or access to certain Internet content.
Another important aspect to keep in mind is that these talks serve to make the students know and trust the Security Forces and Bodies and the public service they provide to the community.