The mayor of Arrecife Yonathan de León and Local Police Tutor Agents attended this Monday, in Tenerife and Gran Canaria, the technical workshops of the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands for their activation by other police forces in the municipalities of the Canary Islands. The capital of Lanzarote has been a pioneer in the province of Las Palmas in the creation of this police unit that reinforces the protection and safety of students in school environments.
The mayor of Arrecife, who is the head of the Local Police, has been accompanied by agents of the Unit for Minors and Family of the Local Police of Arrecife (UMEF) where the Tutor Agents are integrated, who carry out their police work in close collaboration with the management of the educational centers of the municipality, and their respective Educational Communities.
The Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands, led by Minister Poli Suárez, held this Monday in Tenerife, in the morning, and Gran Canaria, in the afternoon, separate technical workshops for the presentation of the Tutor Agent program, with the participation of representatives from the Government of the Balearic Islands, who have traveled to the Canary Islands specifically for this action, an initiative aimed at reinforcing the protection of students and improving coexistence in the archipelago's educational centers.
In these sessions, representatives from Arrecife have shared their experiences in the deployment of this police unit, which has been operational for two years, providing services with good results in the protection of minors in school environments.
Just as the Ministry of Education of the Canary Executive has disseminated, these meetings brought together management teams from educational centers —directors—, municipal representatives, local police, and sports federations, among other groups, and are part of the Ministry's strategy to advance in the implementation of this preventive intervention model, as the Arrecife City Council already offers it, based on collaboration between the educational community, municipal services, and security forces.
The Arrecife Tutor Agents have specific training and the actions they carry out in the educational field and their direct relationship with students, families, and schools are coordinated with the managements of each educational center.
Likewise, in these sessions, intervention in other complementary areas was also addressed, such as sports, expanding the capacity for action in environments linked to childhood and youth, where the capital of Lanzarote "is also a benchmark" with the recent creation of a unit for the prevention of violence in sports and in municipal sports facilities.
Arrecife has activated since the beginning of this year the new police unit UPMEC, made up of ten specialized agents who will act in sports facilities and will have state legal backing. This is the Unit for Prevention, Mediation and Coexistence (UPMEC), for the prevention of violence in sports. A model that the Ministry of Education, and also of Physical Activity and Sports in the Canary Islands wishes to be implemented in the environments of sports centers in the municipalities of the Canary Islands.
Mayor Yonathan de León has congratulated the Ministry, and the entire Poli Suárez team for this new action where the Ministry of Education of the Canary Islands continues to take steps in the implementation of a close and preventive intervention model, which allows anticipating situations of vulnerability, reinforcing security in the school and sports environment and improving coordination between administrations and agents involved in the protection of children and adolescents.