An activity organized last week by the Sesp (State Secretariat for Public Security) of the Paraná government included an exhibition of rifles and other weapons for children at a civic and military school in Colombo, in the metropolitan region of Curitiba.
A video in which it is possible to see part of the exhibition has had repercussions on social networks and has been criticized by APP-Sindicato, an entity that represents teachers in the state’s public school system. For President Walkiria Mazeto, students are exposed to the culture of violence.
She said she took the images to the prosecutor’s office, the public defender’s office and the state comptroller general’s office.
“The video images show children crowded in front of a table, installed in the school gymnasium, where at least five rifles, a pistol and other weapons used by the Special Nature Ostensive Rondas battalion, an elite unit of the Paraná military police, are arranged,” reports the entity.
“The video also shows that the children use their cell phones to take photos of the weapons, while they are observed by a military police officer, without the presence of education professionals,” continues APP-Sindicato.
Asked by Leaf This Tuesday (9), Seed (Secretary of State for Education) advised the report to contact the Sesp.
In a note, Sesp said that the activity was an institutional action and that the teams of Proerd (Educational Program for Resistance to Drugs and Violence), the School Patrol, the Maria da Penha Patrol, the Fire Brigade and the specialized units “presented to the students the aspects of the daily work of the security forces”.
“This is a traditional action that takes place in schools, in squares, in fairs and in community events. The equipment on display was in a supervised area, without any type of manipulation by students,” the note states.
He added that the Secretary of Public Security, Colonel Hudson Leôncio Teixeira, spoke to the students “about the dedication to studies and the valuation of public schools, strengthening the role of education and security in citizenship training.”
“The Sesp emphasizes that all its activities are focused on prevention, information and a responsible approach towards the community,” the note continues.
The secretariat also told the journalist that similar activities take place in all schools, and not only in civic-military units.
APP-Sindicato associates the case with the civic-military school model implemented under the Ratinho Junior (PSD) administration and recalls another video that recently appeared on social networks, in which students from a school in Curitiba appear walking on a sports field singing a song advocating violence.
According to Seed, the registration dates from the end of 2023 and “educational measures were adopted at the time to prevent new cases.”
In one of the passages, the lyrics say that the mission of BOPE, the Special Operations Police Battalion, linked to the Military Police, is “to enter the favela and leave the bodies on the ground.” Then the song says that Bope “kills, skins, always using his gun.”
Seed said the initiative to sing the lyrics came from a student and was interrupted by the instructor when he realized the content of the song.
In the images, we can see that the students are under the supervision of an adult, who would be a retired soldier acting as a school supervisor, as envisaged by the civic-military model.
After the repercussions of the episode in Curitiba, State Deputy Ana Júlia (PT) filed two requests on December 1, with the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office, requesting “the immediate investigation of the facts, the identification of those responsible and the adoption of protective measures for the children and adolescents involved.”
“What we see in this model is a project that replaces pedagogy with authoritarianism, through retired military personnel without pedagogical training. This is incompatible with any modern and democratic conception of education,” declared the MP.
The public education network in the state of Paraná has more than 300 civic-military units, a model created by state law in 2020 and inspired by a program adopted in the previous federal government, by Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
At the civic-military school there is a subject of citizenship and civic education, and the daily life of the students is monitored by members of the inactive Military Corps of the State of Paraná, who act as supervisors.
The law has been the subject of challenges, including a direct action for unconstitutionality before the STF (Federal Supreme Court) proposed by the PT, PSOL and PCdoB parties.
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