Education Minister Camilo Santana on Tuesday announced a series of measures to improve school safety, as Brazil has seen a spree of deadly attacks against schools in recent months. “There is no easy solution,” Mr. Santana said during a televised ministerial meeting in the presidential palace. “But it is necessary for the federal and local governments to join forces.”
Mr. Santana said that social media platforms “aggravate” violence in schools, echoing a talking point of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration, which has campaigned for stricter social media regulation.
President Lula appointed the education minister to lead an inter-ministerial group on school violence. The group was created on April 5, hours after a 25-year-old man killed four children aged 4 to 7 at a private daycare center in Blumenau, a city in the southern state of Santa Catarina. The killer is in custody.
Mr. Santana said that starting next Monday (April 24) public school administrators will be offered an online course on recommendations about school safety. Separately, the Human Rights Ministry created a WhatsApp channel for reports of attacks or threats to schools.
“This is not only a Brazilian phenomenon,” Mr. Santana added. “It’s a global phenomenon we must fight.” He announced that the government will hold an international seminar for countries such as Colombia and Chile to share their experiences reducing school violence.
Speaking after Mr. Santana, Justice Minister Flávio Dino said that fighting school violence starts with a “focus on the internet.”
According to Mr. Dino, 225 people were arrested or detained in the last ten days in relation to the prevention of school violence cases — an average of over 20 arrests per day. Plus, there were 694 subpoenas of teenagers and suspects to testify at police stations and 155 search and seizure operations. Additionally, 756 social media profiles were deleted or suspended.
Episodes of school violence became more frequent in Brazil over the last few years. In March 2019, two young men killed seven people at a public high school in the city of Suzano, in São Paulo state, before committing suicide.
In May 2021, a young man stabbed and killed three small children and two adult women at a daycare center in the city of Saudades, in southern Brazil. In November 2022, a teenager shot and killed three people in two schools in the city of Aracruz, in Espírito Santo state.
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