Teachers and students from L"Hospitalet gathered on the morning of this Monday, April 27, to reject the police presence in educational centers of the municipality. The protest started at the Institut Eugeni d"Ors and then moved to the Institut Margarida Xirgu, the two centers in the city included in the Generalitat's pilot plan to incorporate Mossos d"Esquadra agents permanently in some public high schools.
The measure, planned to be launched this April, would affect 13 schools and institutes in several educational zones of Cataluña, among them L"Hospitalet. The Departament d"Educació maintains that the agents would work in a coordinated manner with the teaching staff for tasks of prevention, mediation, accompaniment and, if necessary, intervention to guarantee coexistence.
Rejection in the two affected schools of L'Hospitalet
The mobilization gathered members of the educational community who question both the substance and the form of the initiative. At Eugeni d"Ors, the second-year baccalaureate student Álex Cisneros demanded more resources for the daily life of the center.
"We ask for resources, both human, such as psychologists and integrators, but also material. The institute is falling apart, we don't want police in the center" - Álex Cisneros, student of the Institut Eugeni d"Ors
The same student added that they have been demanding public and quality education for months and described the situation as outrageous. Among the teaching staff there were also criticisms for the lack of room to debate the application of the measure. Clara Cid, Catalan teacher at Eugeni d"Ors, explained that on Thursday they were informed that this Monday an agent would be incorporated and regretted that they had not had time to establish a position. The teacher trusted that the Generalitat would backtrack.
Criticism for the lack of educational and social resources
At the Institut Margarida Xirgu, professor Pepa Vidal recalled that collaboration with police forces has existed for years, but always from outside the classrooms. She also assured that 95% of the students feel safe and defended that the conflictivity does not justify a permanent police presence inside the center.
In the same vein, Xavier Vilanova, USTEC delegate in L"Hospitalet, expressed himself, who insisted that the educational community has been demanding more staff and a reduction in ratios throughout the course to improve student care. In his opinion, the resource that is incorporated is not educational. The union places the entry of the Mossos into the centers between April 27 and 30.
The opposition to the plan has also come from other educational spaces. The Assemblea de professionals de l"Institut Eduard Fontserè considers it unacceptable that there is budget for security forces and not for maintaining social teams. Furthermore, it warns that the initiative can reinforce a punitive culture and increase control over students of migrant origin.
Support from entities and presence of political representatives
The aFFaC expressed a firm rejection of a plan it considers deeply misguided, while the Col·legi d"Educadores i Educadors Socials de Catalunya showed its support for the mobilizations. Political representatives from the city also attended the protest.
Jaume Graells, spokesperson for ERC+EUiA, criticized that they now want to place the police inside the high schools and defended that the response must go through education and not through repression. Manuel Domínguez, spokesperson for L"H en Comú Podem and former teacher of Margarida Xirgu, called the measure an insult and denounced the lack of schools, of resources and the poor state of the buildings, at the same time that he demanded more education professionals and material improvements.
The educational community of L"Hospitalet maintains the pressure for the Generalitat to reconsider the deployment. The protests could continue in the coming days while teachers, students and entities insist that coexistence in the institutes must be reinforced with more educational and social resources, and not with permanent police presence.