Government sends “Safe Classroom” bill to Congress
The bill seeks to strengthen principals’ authority to expel and deregister students in serious cases of school violence such as those that have taken place in some flagship schools in the Metropolitan Region.
The President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, and the Education Minister, Marcela Cubillos, signed the “Safe Classroom” bill this morning. The proposed legislation would strengthen principals’ authority to immediately expel students who are involved in serious acts of violence.
President Piñera stated, “the message is very clear: we are telling the public that our government is committed to quality education for each and every one of our children and young people with the dignity and integrity that the entire school community deserves, but that it will use all of the force of the law against criminals and violent individuals who disguised as students, show a lack of respect for everyone, and seek to create a climate of fear within our schools.”
Education Minister Marcela Cubillos said, “we hope to secure the support of legislators so that they quickly pass this law, which provides significant support for public education. We must rigorously address the cowardice and violence that we have seen in the actions of young people throwing Molotov cocktails inside of schools or spraying teachers with gasoline. They are putting all of their classmates and teachers at risk and violating the right to education of the rest of the educational community.”
Current legislation only allows principals to expel or deregister a student when the acts are prohibited under the school’s internal regulations using a procedure that lasts at least 25 business days. There is no provision for immediately expelling such students. Minister Cubillos added that, “a teacher is thus forced to spend 30 days in the same classroom as a student who sprayed gasoline on them or assaulted them, which is absolutely inhumane and unacceptable.”
The “Safe Classroom” bill strengthens the principal’s authority to expel and deregister students in serious cases of violence. The legislation states that expulsion and deregistration should proceed immediately in the following cases:
a) Use, ownership, possession and storage of certain types of weapons listed in the Gun Control Law (weapons of war, firearms, munitions, explosives for which authorization is required, chemical substances used to manufacture explosive or Tasers) and incendiary, explosive or similar devices such as Molotov cocktails.
b) Physical aggression resulting in injury to a teacher, teaching assistant or food worker.
The new rules would be applied with full respect for due process and the possibility of reconsideration of the measure by the principal (the deadline for requesting this is reduced from 15 to five days).
The Education Ministry will be responsible for finding a new placement for the student offender and providing support to them. Any student who engages in the conducts listed above shall be immediately removed from their school.