Teachers unions in Montevideo, Uruguay held a 24-hour strike on Friday to protest recent violent attacks against educators. The strikes were a response to two incidents at separate schools in the capital that occurred within a four-day span.
According to the Association of Teachers of Secondary Education of Montevideo (ADES), a student attacked a teacher at the “Liceo 39” secondary school in Piedras Blancas on Monday, hitting her “in the genitals, in one eye, and in the thorax.” ADES Montevideo described the situation as “critical,” adding that the teachers have “neither sufficient nor adequate resources” to care for the needs of students in “vulnerable situations.”
A statement published on the ADES Montevideo website explains that this was not an isolated incident, listing 11 acts of violence which have taken place this academic year. It accuses the authorities of ignoring unions’ requests for support, of failing to meet teachers’ demands for inspections in high schools, and of ignoring union organization. The statement calls on the authorities to provide an “immediate response” to the situation.
In a separate incident on Thursday, the mother of a student allegedly hit the principal, a teacher, and an assistant at the “Escuela 33” primary school in Flor de Maroñas, according to television news program Subrayado. A student intervening in the violence is also said to have hit a teacher.
The Association of Teachers of Montevideo (AdeMU) published a statement expressing “its solidarity with the assaulted colleagues and with the entire school community,” reaffirming “its rejection of all forms of violence.”
The association also criticized the time it took for the police to respond to the scene, claiming that police did not arrive at the school for 35 minutes, and that, when they did, officers took more than 60 minutes to intervene.
The principal was reportedly instructed by police to go to the police station to file a report about the violence. When she told the officers that she would rather wait for medical help to arrive, given that she had a severe headache, she was told that she would go from “complainant to accused” if she did not go to the police station, according to newspaper la diaria.
Uruguay sees significantly less school-related violence than the United States and other large Latin American countries like Brazil, which has experienced 23 violent attacks in schools in the last 20 years.
A 2021 UNICEF study of school related violence in Latin America found that 8% of Uruguayan parents perceived a high threat of student violence involving weapons, compared to 24% in Colombia, 23% in the Dominican Republic and 18% in Guatemala.
A separate study found that 5% of Uruguayan school-age boys could be considered bullies, while 4.5% can be considered victims and 0.7% victim-bullies. What’s more, over half of students surveyed said they perceived that teachers had a positive attitude towards them, but this dropped down to 40% of students in evening classes. While 28% said that the attitudes of adults at the school bothers them.
Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou rejected claims that the government has failed to listen to teaching unions, claiming, “If there is one thing the government has done, it is listen. We may not have agreed.”
He added that the strike “ends up hurting those who need education the most: the children.”