The Docentes de Canarias-Insucan (DCI) union will ask the Ministry of Education for "total protection" against attacks and threats to teachers by parents and students. "Because we receive threats in schools every day," said the delegate of this union in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, Juan Serafín, who told La Voz about some of the cases registered in Lanzarote.
"In Playa Honda, for example, there is a colleague who has had stones thrown at his door, his windows broken at his house, and 'Son of a Bitch' painted on it, and these are attacks every day," said Juan Serafín, who, however, pointed out that "this is forgotten when it happens outside, although it is totally related to the school environment." "And let's not talk about cyberbullying on the networks," he added.
The delegate of Docentes de Canarias-Insucan in Lanzarote also related that a teacher from Lanzarote had to face a trial recently "for a false accusation" by some parents who claimed that he had attacked their son. "And he had to pay for a lawyer out of his own pocket because the Ministry doesn't provide anyone, when all the colleagues who were present, even the Inspection, took it for granted that it had been an accident, of a graze that you give yourself, that you don't realize and you keep walking," he said
According to Juan Serafín, the trial was held in December and the teacher was acquitted, with the parents being ordered to pay the costs. "But in the face of that false accusation, we have a professional who used to get involved with the students and who has now put up a barrier, because you find yourself totally defenseless," he said.
And, as the DCI delegate in Lanzarote explained, "there is a protocol that the Ministry has now issued, but it is very generic." "And we are fighting for them to add many more things," said Juan Serafín, who believes that the new regulations are only "electoralist and nothing more." "And as a worker, I have to feel defended by my company. Furthermore, the law recognizes us as an authority, but families don't understand it that way," he indicated
"There are colleagues who are depressed because of this harassment"
"If this happens to you with a civil guard, a local police officer or a national police officer, there is no word or discussion. What the police say has to be refuted by you and, in this case, however, he had to refute what the family said. And we teachers receive threats like this in schools every day. We come across families who put their children in a bubble and what they say goes. And I don't question how they educate their children, but they are capable of coming to question without any argument what you are doing with their children in class," added Juan Serafín.
Thus, the DCI delegate in Lanzarote has stated that an island-level meeting will be held, which he hopes will be attended by the island director of Education and the director of Personnel, to discuss this issue and demand "total protection" from the Ministry. "A protocol that protects us from threats, that we are truly considered as an authority and that we have a penal and psychological care service, because there are colleagues who are depressed because of this harassment, who have had to abandon their post because they cannot live like this," he concluded.
