(Rio de Janeiro) Some 74% of public schools in Rio de Janeiro were affected at least once in 2019 by shootings, the vast majority involving the police, according to a study published Monday on the impact of the drug war on public education.
Posted at 11:56
The “Marvelous City”, a tourist postcard from Brazil, is the frequent scene of clashes between rival gangs of drug traffickers or with the police, especially in the favelas where more than two million Cariocas live.
These shootings claim many victims, terrorize the population and seriously disrupt the progress of classes where scenes of panic among students and teachers who throw themselves to the ground for fear of stray bullets are frequent.
The report by the Center for Security and Citizenship Studies (Cesec) is based on data from the Fogo Cruzado digital platform, which counted a total of 4,346 episodes of armed violence in Rio de Janeiro in 2019, many of them following police interventions.
“From the data provided by the platform, it was possible to identify 1,154 schools in the public education network of the city of Rio (74%) caught at least once in a shooting”, indicates the report which is is focused on the last normal school year before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some 57% of these schools were affected by at least 10 episodes of armed violence in 2019 and 11% had to endure more than 30 episodes.
This violence often leads to the temporary closure of classes, with a negative impact on school performance. According to the report, 295 schools in Rio had to close for at least one day in 2019.
“Presence of armored vehicles near the unit, intense gunfire and we also heard many bomb explosions. No normal operating conditions,” the principal of a school in northern Rio de Janeiro lamented in the report after a shooting in March 2019.