"I'm reading the news and I'm filled with rage and helplessness? Of course, one is no longer calm, nor does one know where to take the children and where not to." Messages like this, received in the lavozdelanzarote.com forum, ...
"I'm reading the news and I'm filled with rage and helplessness? Of course, one is no longer calm, nor does one know where to take the children and where not to." Messages like this, received in the lavozdelanzarote.com forum, summarize the feeling of many parents, after rereading the raw account of the events that will be judged next Wednesday in Arrecife.
Regardless of the sentence that Justice ends up dictating, it is inevitable that this case, which was reported in the summer of 2008 and is now going to trial, will make your hair stand on end. The alleged victims were only between 10 and 12 years old and intended to enjoy a summer camp in La Santa, sharing the holidays with children of their age. However, they have ended up testifying in a Court, to denounce the alleged abuses to which they were subjected by two monitors.
The story is chilling. So much so that it is even difficult to reproduce it, since the children claim that they had to listen to such humiliating phrases as "fat, greasy, you have it like a pussy", while they were made to show themselves naked before their classmates. "They took away their towels, opened the curtains while they were showering, making the girls of their same age see them naked, grabbing their hands and feet so they couldn't cover themselves," the prosecutor says in his indictment, in which he also maintains that one night they were forced to leave the room and do push-ups and sit-ups while they were being wet "with cold water and pressure with a hose".
Is the account provided by six minors who reported the events true? That will have to be determined by the Criminal Court Number 1 of Arrecife but, even if only a minimal part of what the children say were true, it would be unforgivable.
The request for seven and a half years in prison for six crimes against moral integrity has also generated a debate, since it may seem excessive to some, compared to the penalties contemplated by the Penal Code for other cases.
However, not even the maximum penalty is requested, which can be up to two years in prison for this crime. In reality, the prosecutor is asking for one year and three months in prison, but multiplied by each of the alleged victims. And it is that according to the complaint, it was not an isolated event against a child, but a repeated conduct at least with six of the minors who participated in that camp. Therefore, although these events may seem "less serious" compared to other types of crimes, if true, they would reflect a more than worrying conduct.
What kind of macabre pleasure can be obtained by humiliating and intimidating children who may be leaving home for the first time? What kind of person is capable of doing something like that? What confidence can parents have, now that we are in the middle of the summer season, to send their children to a camp thinking that it is the best for them, if they fear that it could turn into a nightmare?
Beyond whether or not the crimes are proven, evidently something happened in that camp for six children to end up going with their parents to the Courts. In fact, only with what is already on the table, the organization of that camp has been more than questioned. And in that, the Cabildo is largely to blame, which the Prosecutor includes in his indictment as jointly and severally liable, asking that it respond, together with the company organizing the camp, for the payment of the compensation claimed for each child.
And it is that the ultimate responsible for that camp was the Cabildo of Lanzarote, as organizer of the activity, and that could give an added confidence to the parents who decided to send their children. However, the management was left in the hands of a private company, "Extraocio S.L.", and certainly certain conditions of the organization do not seem the most appropriate.
The judicial investigation, apart from the alleged abuses, has also put on the table the training of the people who were in charge of the children. One of the monitors, who is also charged but will be tried in another process, precisely for being a minor, was only 17 years old. That is, almost a child taking care of other children. As for the other accused monitor, the prosecutor emphasizes that "he lacked any type of qualification or title to perform the functions of monitor of minors", and also had a criminal record, for driving under the influence of alcohol. This last may have nothing to do with the functions he was going to perform, but it certainly does not seem the most suitable person or the best model to teach leisure activities to children between six and twelve years old who were going to that camp.
Therefore, regardless of what happens in the trial, this should serve as an example to review how these types of activities are organized. And it is not about parents now avoiding camps or that these stop being held (as has happened with the one in La Santa since that summer of 2008), but about organizing them with all the guarantees, so that parents can regain confidence and be sure that they leave their children in the best hands.