The Institut Margarida Xirgu de L"Hospitalet de Llobregat has expressed its will to leave the pilot plan of the Generalitat about the presence of Mossos d"Esquadra in educational centers, an initiative that has opened a strong rejection in part of the teaching and student community. The project foresees that agents intervene in the mediation of conflicts without uniform and unarmed.
The opposition to the plan was made visible on Monday, April 27, in a demonstration with the participation of teachers and students, especially from the Margarida Xirgu and Eugeni d"Ors institutes. In this latter center, the will to abandon the test had not yet been formalized, although they have also openly shown themselves to be against the measure.
Four cloisters have already positioned themselves against it
The rejection is not limited to L"Hospitalet. The cloistered communities of four institutes have already stated their refusal to be part of the plan. They are Margarida Xirgu and three centers in Vic, Jaume Callís, La Plana, and Comtat d"Osona. Furthermore, educational unions maintain that three other institutes in the capital of Osona plan to register the request soon.
The Assembly of workers of the Institut Margarida Xirgu disseminated a statement in which it questions the voluntary nature of the measure. In that text, it maintains that the center did not ask to participate and that its inclusion was imposed.
"The councilor Niubó lies when she says the pilot plan was voluntary. Our center never asked to participate but was imposed the obligation to do so" - Assemblea de treballadores, Institut Margarida Xirgu
From the Department of Education, however, it is maintained that for now no formal request for withdrawal has been registered by the 14 centers included in the pilot plan.
Criticism for the stigmatization of students
More than 200 entities have rejected the initiative considering that it stigmatizes vulnerable students and that it can favor racist attitudes against the immigrant collective. That argument also focused a large part of the public interventions of teachers from Margarida Xirgu.
Professor Marc Plana assured at a press conference that, after Monday's protest, the center has suffered racist targeting with graffiti and posters placed on the exterior by far-right groups.
"We have been pointing out since Monday's demonstration that this measure stigmatizes our students and today, Thursday, we have had a direct consequence, with a racist targeting and graffiti on the outside of the school" - Marc Plana, professor at Institut Margarida Xirgu
The same teacher defended that the institute must be a safe space to attend to the students and maintained that the police model feeds the narrative of the far-right and the stigmatization of the population of migrant origin.
The Generalitat defends a limited application
The Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, has defended that the test does not have a punitive, sanctioning, or surveillance nature. In the same vein, the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has remarked that it is a voluntary experience, limited in time and subject to evaluation.
The controversy remains open in the affected centers, with opposing positions between the administration and part of the educational community. While some faculties have already asked to stay out, the debate about the role of the Mossos in the institutes continues to grow in L"Hospitalet and Vic.