Starting next week, officers from the Catalan police force will be incorporated into four secondary schools in Urgell and two in Val d'Aran. This initiative is part of a broader pilot project that includes other high schools in Catalonia offering ESO, Baccalaureate, and Vocational Training.
According to the Government, the objective of this measure is to «improve school coexistence» and does not respond to security problems in classrooms. However, associations of student families, teachers' unions, and various educational sector entities have expressed their frontal opposition and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the project.
The affected high schools in Urgell are Ribera del Sió in Agramunt, Lo Pla d'Urgell in Bellpuig, and Manuel de Pedrolo and Alfons Costafreda in Tàrrega. In Val d'Aran, the measure will be applied at the Val d'Aran high school in Vielha and the Escòla d'Ostalaria in Les. Plainclothes officers will integrate into existing working groups, such as coexistence, inclusive care (CAEI), and absenteeism commissions.
“"Police presence does not increase security and tends to criminalize the most vulnerable students, in addition to generating distrust and stigmatization."
The majority education union in Catalonia, Ustec-Stes, has denounced the «police logic» of the Department of Education, arguing that security measures are being used to address an educational and social problem that the educational community has been highlighting for years. For its part, the Secondary Teachers union has stressed that the solution is not police presence, but rather «guaranteeing respect for teachers and their authority».
A hundred entities grouped in the Desmilitaritzem l'Educació campaign have called the measure a «nonsense» and demanded its withdrawal. Likewise, CCOO has rejected the pilot test, considering it not to be the «correct approach», while acknowledging the growing complexity in classrooms due to the lack of decisive public policies.
