Brazil’s school violence mirrors US. Its reaction does not
- Little revealed about unprecedented crackdown but around 300 people rounded up, accused of spreading hate speech or stoking school violence
- ‘We’ve learned from successes, mistakes of other nations, especially US’; Brazil has had around 24 violent episodes in schools since 2000, with half in last year
About two weeks after a man killed four children in a Brazilian nursery school, authorities already have rounded up some 300 adults and minors nationwide accused of spreading hate speech or stoking school violence.
Little has been revealed about the unprecedented crackdown, which risks judicial overreach, but it underlines the determination of the country’s response across federal, state and municipal levels.
Brazil’s all-hands effort to stamp out its emerging trend of school attacks stands in contrast to the US, where such attacks have been more frequent and more deadly for a longer period, yet where measures nowadays are incremental.
Actions adopted in the US, and some of its perceived shortcomings, are informing the Brazilian response, said Renan Theodoro, a researcher with the Center for the Study of Violence at the University of Sao Paulo.
“We have learned from the successes and the mistakes of other countries, especially the United States,” said Theodoro.
Brazil has seen almost two dozen attacks or violent episodes in schools since 2000, half of them in the last 12 months, including the nursery school attack on April 5.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the notion of schools as safe havens has been “ruined”. His government has sought input from independent researchers and this week convened a meeting of ministers, mayors and Supreme Court justices to discuss possible solutions.