Ground Report

Fighting Back in Argentina   By Nick Stern

 La Plata, Argentina — The incident, like an open wound, still rubs raw on the memories of many Argentines.  On the morning of September 28, 2004, a 15-year-old assailant, known only as “Junior”, unloaded the full magazine of his father’s 9mm pistol, killing three fellow students and wounding six.

     The infamous school shooting in provincial Carmen de Patagones, 554 miles south of La Plata, (pop. 500,000) near the capital Buenos Aires, has not, however, shaken the resolve of local experts to face threats of unimaginable violence with the powerful weapons of education, understanding and social inclusion. 

    “If we want to address the epidemic of violence in our schools and society, we have to look at the roots of the problem and not the consequences,” says Dr. Raul Mercer.  

    Mercer, a U.S. trained epidemiologist and professor at FLASCO (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales) and the University of Entre Rios, explains that in Argentina “financial inequity, impunity and a high level of societal fragmentation translate into other codes of conflict resolution.  Violence is another language we are using now.”

    According to a May 2003 Permanent Poll of Homes, 52 percent of Argentina‘s population was living below the poverty line of around 280 U.S. dollars per family, per month.  A 2003 study by the Ministry of Justice concluded that approximately 80 percent of all prisoners who languished in Argentine jails awaiting trial had yet to be charged with a crime.   

    Despite what happened in Carmen de Patagones, a peaceful, working class town with a population similar in size to Columbine, Colorado, Mercer says, “Fatal violence is not a serious problem in Argentine schools, not yet.”

    Valerie Ramos Costa, director of the E.S.B. No 52 High School, agrees but says, “We have potential ‘Juniors” everywhere.”

    “A little while ago,” says Costa, “we marked the anniversary of Carmen.  We had a moment of silence; put the flag at half-mast.  But I don’t think we have truly reflected on this.”

    Fighting Back  

    In response to the recent spate of school based murders in the U.S., the faculty of Burleson High School in Ft. Worth, Texas, is teaching its students how to physically fight back against and neutralize armed attackers using any available means.  

    Instructing children at school in the use of martial force, such as that employed in Krav Maga, an Israeli style of hand-to-hand combat formed to train the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces), is not new.  Elementary and high school children in Israel and Wales have already begun, within their schools, taking courses in Krav Maga to avert deadly threats from possible assailants. 

    “Israel is a special case that cannot be extrapolated to the rest of the world,” says Mercer, whose brother and mother live in Tel Aviv.  “Besides,” he says, “I think their approach is wrong.  After almost two or three thousand years, Jews are still fighting against Arabs.”

    Mercer says, “The whole ‘uniting against the enemy’ stance in Israel and in the U. S. is masking many social conflicts that will emerge when a peace finally comes.”  

    Even as reminders of the atrocities committed against students during Argentina’s 1976-1983 “Dirty War” appear frequently in the local news, some Argentine educators, physicians and students are reluctant to accept the notion that fighting back with force against would be attackers is the best decision.    

    Mercer, who is also a pediatrician, warns, “This strategy is like giving arms to children.”  

    “The creation of an atmosphere of insecurity,” he notes, “promotes a false sense of unity because, again, the roots of the problem are not being dealt with.”  Mercer says, “If you asked me where to invest money, to promote health among adolescents, I would make every effort to put it in the (general) education system.”

   “This,” he says, “is a potent strategy to provide not only protection but opportunities (for children) to develop their life projects and to help promote social inclusion.”

   Cecilia Actis, a sociologist teaching human relations courses at Bellas Artes High School, mentions that violence is common among her students. “Violence happening in Argentine schools to teachers and students is not only physical, it is symbolic,” says Actis.  “It comes in the form of words, threats.”  Actis, who also teaches at La Plata prisons No. 33, 8 and 25, says she has been physically threatened by a student there to change a grade. 

   “Preparing children to fight back against an attacker,” she says, “might be a good idea, for the moment of violence.”

   “Of course,” Actis explains, “they could also use this specialized knowledge to harm other students.  Then you could have a conflict of interest between the rights of children, as established in the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Children, to which Argentina is a signatory, and those of the teachers who have trained them to harm others.”

   “But really,” she says, “the best thing is to have specialists in juvenile behavior watching what happens in the schools so they can stop potential violence before it occurs.” 

    Benjamin Fernandez, a police officer who works in the La Plata 9-1-1 call center, says that though he doesn’t hear about much violence at schools, an extreme case like Carmen de Patagones poses a security dilemma for a city like La Plata.  

   “Of course,” he says, “if they (student victims) take a passive attitude in a critical situation, they are an easier target.”

   “We teach the new policemen some techniques on how to take weapons,” says Fernandez, who is also a part-time instructor at the La Plata School of Cadets, “but I don’t know if I would teach them to students or the community.”  Fernandez says, “The kids are basically sitting there defenseless.  Maybe it would be a good idea to have someone at the door, doing prevention.”

    But Fernandez notes that the government of Buenos Aires Province doesn’t give money to public schools for security guards.  “I think the schools need a security person there, but this government will never have the money for it.”

    Ivan, a senior attending a private, Catholic high school, says he has not witnessed any serious violence at his school.

    “I think teaching kids martial arts could be a good idea,” says Ivan.  “Maybe a kid or teacher who knew how to use them would have stopped what happened in Carmen.” 

    “On the other hand,” he says, “maybe if the shooter was attacked by someone, he would have been more nervous and killed more people.”

 Other Priorities

    Costa, who oversees 170 students in a poor suburb of La Plata, says “I am the only director.  I don’t have a co-director or secretary, though according to the regulations (of the Province of Buenos Aires), I should.” Describing the living conditions of her students, she says, “A lot of them are supported by government social programs.  They have many basic needs that are barely being met: clothing, food.”

    “While I see security as a valid concern,” Costa explains, “there are much more important priorities.”

    “Before martial arts training,” she says, “I think they need a full-time team of psychological and pedagogical counselors.”

    “Since they don’t have that,” she continues, “children who are possible threats, who are victims of abuse at home or are frequently absent from school, aren’t monitored.”

   Costa says, “There is a policy for security.  But we need money.”

   “For example,” she says, “we have an alarm on the wall at school, but it doesn’t work.”