Mexico: Oaxacan Parents Practice "true defense of education"

Parents guard school against return of dissident teachers
Photo: Carolina Rivera

Milenio: Carolina Rivera and Óscar Rodríguez

Translated by Sally Seward

Pueblo Nuevo, Oaxaca • In the high part of Oaxaca, at the Municipal Agency of Pueblo Nuevo, a group of parents are gathered to protect Flores Magón Primary School in the face of a threat that Section 22 will recover the school.

They note that the only thing they are looking to do is to guarantee that their children will continue their schooling, that the education they receive will be high quality and that the labor strikes stop at least in their community.

Six weeks ago desperation brought the Committee of Parents to their limit, since the delay and the repeated cancellation of classes forced them to invite Section 59 of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) to assume leadership of the school, which has allowed them to gradually complete the workforce.

"We asked them [dissident section 22 teachers] to start giving classes again. They came twice and simply said that they couldn't because they would feel ashamed to be giving classes and abandoning their colleagues, that they already have years of fighting, and that therefore they didn't have a date to return," said Victoria López, a mother.

Because of this, facing this decision and the fear that Section 22 would carry out its threats and want to enter by force or try to loot the classrooms, the parents are guarding the property.

They even fear that the construction work to expand the school currently taking place will be delayed even more, since they claim that even the director of the school himself at one time assured them that if they did not support the [dissident] teachers, it wouldn't be finished.

Ricardo Pérez Ricardo, a father, indicated that each year the teachers threaten to withhold from them any social programs if they do not support their demonstrations, for which, fed up with the situation, they decided to investigate directly with the authorities.

"Now we see that it is not true, that no union section can start the construction work; those who can manage the work are the government and the Committee of Parents. Nevertheless, the teachers scared us a lot by saying that if we didn't do what they said, there would be no scholarships, opportunity programs or textbooks," he explained.

Esther Guzmán Santiago, President of the Committee of Parents, claimed that since opening the school they have received threats from Section 22, saying not only that they are going to recover the school, but that they will attack them physically.

Therefore, the parents decided to close the road to keep the teachers from surprising them; the women remain inside the school, while the men keep watch outside, intercepting any stranger that comes near.

This is why a few days before it is time for the "return" of Section 22, and dealing with a lack of attention from the state and municipal governments, the parents remain firm in what they say is the true defense of education.

They also warn that they will keep up their fight until the government officially gives them the school so that the teachers from Section 59 can take on the leadership of their children's education, which, they assure, has improved significantly in these past six weeks. Spanish Original