The Provincial Director of the Ministry of Education and Professional Training (MEyFP) in Melilla, Juan Ángel Berbel, has condemned the aggression suffered by a minor in the facilities of the ‘Virgen de la Victoria’ Institute during the recreational period. “We are very aware and sensitized from the educational field and we condemn and resent the occurrence of this type of action in our educational facilities,” he said.
The head of the MEyFP in our city explained that the management team of the center communicated to the Provincial Directorate the facts “indicating that the measures contemplated within the regulations of the internal regime that all the educational centers have at their disposal have already been adjudicated.”
Specifically, the center has expelled three students who attacked the child and now it will be the Educational Inspection that once assessed and studied the case, took the appropriate measures.
As Berbel explained, the schools, when the course begins, have an inaugural day where they meet with the management team, teachers, students… and “they remind them what are the rules of organization, operation and rules of coexistence that are applicable in that school”.
“All schools have a Coexistence Plan, in accordance with article 124 of the LOE, which includes the assessment of the state of coexistence in the school, taking into account its characteristics and those of its context; the values of coexistence and the objectives and priorities in relation to the educational project of this school; the concretion of rights and duties of the students and the rest of the educational community; the guidelines for the development of classroom rules; and the rules of coexistence,” he said.
These norms of coexistence are concretized in issues such as strategies and actions for the prevention and peaceful resolution of conflicts, with special attention to actions for the prevention of gender violence, equality and non-discrimination.
The corrective measures applicable in the event of non-compliance, which must always be of an educational and recuperative nature, and take into account the situation and personal conditions of the students. They must also guarantee respect for the rights of the rest of the students and will seek to improve the relationships of all members of the educational community.
Specifically, as explained by Berbel, any conduct that violates the personal dignity of other members of the educational community, which has as its origin or consequence a discrimination or harassment based on gender, sexual orientation or identity, or a racial, ethnic, religious, belief or disability origin, or that is carried out against the most vulnerable students due to their personal, social or educational characteristics, will have the qualification of a very serious fault and will have associated as a corrective measure the expulsion, which can be temporary or definitive from the center, in case it is a very serious or repetitive aggression of a series of harassers on a victim, an assaulted person or people on whom they act in a way.
Continuing with the Coexistence Plan, the Provincial Director has pointed out that the activities that are programmed in order to promote a good climate of coexistence can be both inside and outside the school hours.
Within the teaching time, once the course begins, the figure of the tutor is relevant in this aspect, since “the possible conflicts that may arise intra-classroom are addressed, in which the students have some series of disputes that must always be resolved in an appropriate way, talking, dialogue”.
In this sense Juan Ángel Berbel has made it clear that one of the principles of the educational community and that it is applied in all educational facilities. It has to be dialogue for the resolution of conflicts. “Conflicts can arise but we have to avoid and diminish as much as we can when we see a situation that can lead to some manifestation of physical or verbal aggression and that we have to tackle.”
“Obviously, as soon as we have knowledge of any anomalous situation, we act from the educational field or, in general, from any adult worker in the center, if we see a situation where a series of events are taking place that are atypical in terms of coexistence that must always prevail as a value to be taken into account within the educational centers,” he concluded.